Technip-Coflexip wins contract from ExxonMobil unit

15-05-02 Mobil Equatorial Guinea Inc. (MEGI), subsidiary of ExxonMobil, has awarded another contract in its Zafiro Southern Expansion field development project off Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea. Paris-based Technip-Coflexip was tapped for the procurement, fabrication, and installation of more than 48 km of flexible and rigid subsea pipelines.
The contract is the latest award toward the $ 900 mm production expansion project, which is under way and expected to see first production in September 2003. A contract for subsea systems were awarded last month.

The Southern Expansion area of Zafiro field lies on Block B, about 65 km northwest of Malabo in 1,400-2,800 ft of water. The Southern Expansion project will recover about 150 mm barrel of oil.
New development will consist of subsea wells tied back to a floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel capable of processing 110,000 bpd of oil and having about 2 mm barrel of storage capacity. A total of 19 subsea wells are planned, and drilling is expected to continue until 2004.

Technip-Coflexip's pipeline contract covers the project management, engineering, procurement, transport, and installation of:
-- Six 8-inch production pipelines extending 22 km.
-- A 4 km, 12-inch water injection line.
-- A 4 km, 6-inch water injection line.
-- A 8 km, 6-inch gas-lift line.
-- A 11 km 14-inch export pipeline.

Technip-Coflexip will also procure and install 17 flexible jumpers and two flowline sleds. The flexible pipes will be manufactured at the firm's plant in Le Trait, France, and the Evanton spool base in Scotland will fabricate the rigid pipeline to be installed by the CSO Apache pipelay vessel.
The CSO Constructor vessel will perform layout survey, install the flexible lines, and assist the CSO Apache during installation of the rigid line. Current production in Zafiro, which began in late 1996, is 150,000 bpd effected from a fixed platform, an FPSO vessel, and both platform and subsea wells.

In addition to operator MEGI (71.25 % interest), participants in Block B are Houston-based Ocean Energy (23.75 %) and the government of Equatorial Guinea.