Total Upstream Nigeria Limited (TUPNI), operators of the Egina field has said the $16billion project is expected to be completed in before year end (Q4) 2018, even as the deepwater project is said to have set new local content records.

Egina was discovered by in 2003 within the Oil Mining Licence 130 (OML 130), some 200 kilometres south of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, and reputed as the largest investment project currently ongoing in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.

Total in a statement yesterday, said the project, is being executed within the initial budget, and with overall progress put at 88 per cent “and a key milestone was achieved on October 31, as the Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading unit (FPSO) started its journey to Nigeria.

The Egina field upon completion will boost Nigeria’s oil production by 200,000 barrels per day or approximately 10 per cent of its total oil production, is being developed by TUPNI in partnership with NNPC, CNOOC, SAPETRO and PETROBRAS.

“Being the first major deepwater development project launched after the enactment of the Nigerian Oil & Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act of 2010, Egina has the highest level of local content of any such project in Nigeria,” Total said in the statement.

Some of the local content milestones include: the Egina FPSO, a 330-meter long vessel designed to process oil and gas from the field, will be berthed at the quayside in Nigeria for integration of locally fabricated modules – a first for Nigeria; and it is the highest number of FPSO topside modules (six) to be fully fabricated and integrated in Nigeria.

Also, the assembly of the Integrated Control and Safety System of the FPSO was fully performed in-country; and the fabrication of the largest subsea equipment (manifolds, risers) ever completed in Nigeria, far above what was achieved in previous projects.

Besides, the project also boasts of 24 million man-hours worked in Nigeria (77 per cent of total project workload), equivalent to a workforce of 3,000 persons on average over a period of five years; 60,000 tonnes of equipment to be fabricated in Nigeria; and over 560,000 man-hours of human capacity development training across Egina contracts.
Furthermore, there is also the construction of several large-scale new fabrication facilities in Nigeria, and upgrade of several existing fabrication yards.

Total affirmed that “Egina project is testimony to the fact that large deepwater projects can be developed with a very high level of in-country activities, thus fulfilling the aspirations and objectives of the Federal Government of Nigeria in terms of employment generation, capacity building and industrial capability development.

“As operator of the Egina project, Total Upstream Nigeria Ltd fully identifies with the Government aspirations for Nigerian Content and has been working closely with the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) to maximize Nigerian Content on the project.”