Oil and gas company Energean, working to develop its Karish field offshore Israel, expects that the FPSO being built for the eastern Mediterranean Sea project will set sail from Singapore in the summer of 2021. The London-listed company shared the info as part of its first-half results presentation on Thursday.
The FPSO, called Energean Power, is currently in Singapore where the China-built hull is being fitted with topside modules. The first module was installed on August 24.
Mathios Rigas, Chief Executive, Energean said: "Despite some COVID-19-related disruptions, in the year-to-date we have made solid progress on our flagship gas project in Israel, which is scheduled to deliver first gas in 2H 2021.“
“We have successfully performance-tested all three Karish development wells, delivered a resource upgrade at Karish North, completed the installation of the 8 bcm/yr capacity, 90km pipeline that will deliver Energean's gas sales (currently at 5.6 bcm/yr) into the Israeli domestic market, completed the hull of our FPSO in China and moved it to Singapore, and have commenced heavy lifting operations.”
As previously reported, the Energean Power FPSO hull arrived at the Sembcorp Marine Admiralty Yard in Singapore in April 2020, just when the Singapore yard shut its operation to prevent COVID-19 transmission risk
The yard re-opened on June 2, 2020, but the work ramp-up was slow in June and July due to government restrictions and associated health checks being performed in the workers' dormitories.
Per Energean, a major ramp-up of the workforce in the Singapore Yard occurred during August 2020 and in the first week of September the workforce on the project averaged more than 480 workers per day.
Installation of the topside modules onto the FPSO hull has now started, with the Ehouse module, which contains all the FPSO control equipment and electrical switchgear, successfully lifted onto the Energean Power hull on the August 24. 2020. Heavy lifting operations for the remaining modules are expected to start in the coming weeks.
Following the start of the lifting campaign, topsides integration and pre-commissioning is expected to take approximately 10-11 months, after which the FPSO is expected to sail away from Singapore to Israel.
“Energean is working with its contractors to mitigate the schedule impacts experienced to date and has identified options such as shift optimization and productivity improvement measures, which could reduce this 10-11 month period to sail away,” the company said.
As things currently stand, Energean expects the sailaway to Israel to occur in the summer 2021 and first gas in 2H 2021.
Installation of the risers that will connect the production wells to the FPSO is expected to start in 4Q 2020 and to be completed in 1Q 2021, marking the completion of the subsea works required ahead of arrival of the Energean Power FPSO.
Onshore, the works are progressing well and the whole system is expected to be ready to receive first gas in 2Q 2021, well ahead of expected hook-up of the FPSO, Energean said.
According to WorldEnergyReports, the FPSO will be spread moored with 14 mooring lines in a water depth of 1,750 m. Lankhorst will supply 28 rope lengths totaling 43,400 m. Energean last month said it had completed the installation of the suction anchors that will keep the FPSO in place off Israel.