Malaysia's Yinson Production Wins $5 Billion-Plus Angola FPSO Prize

Malaysia’s Yinson Production has signed a contract with Azule Energy to supply the floating, production, storage and offloading vessel for the Agogo Integrated West Hub development project offshore Angola — a deal worth up to an estimated $5.3 billion.

Yinson will provide, operate and maintain the Agogo FPSO for a firm period of 15 years from the date of the final acceptance, with the option to extend for a further five years. The floater is expected to begin operations in the fourth quarter of 2025.

The Agogo FPSO will be the contractor’s first offshore production project in Angola and its eighth such project in the West African region, and will boost Yinson’s order book to about $22.4 billion.

Yinson Holdings chief executive Lim Chern Yuan said: “Our long-standing relationship with Eni, one of the JV partners in Azule alongside BP, started with the contract award for the John Agyekum Kufuor FPSO back in 2017, which we delivered three months ahead of schedule. We have also maintained an excellent safety and uptime track record which paved the way for our involvement in the Agogo FPSO project.”

Norway’s Subsea7 has also secured work on Azule’s ultra-deepwater Agogo project — a contract worth up to $500 million. The Oslo-listed company's scope includes the transport and installation of about 98 kilometres of flexible pipes, 30 kilometres of umbilicals and associated subsea structures in water depths of about 1700 metres.

Project management and engineering have begun and will be managed from Subsea7’s offices in Angola, France, the UK and Portugal. Fabrication will take place at the Sonamet yard in Lobito, Angola, while offshore operations are planned between the fourth quarter next year and Q4 2025.

Subsea7 Africa, Middle East & Caspian vice president Franck Louvety said: “We are pleased to have our first contract with Azule Energy and to continue supporting the development of the Angolan offshore energy industry.

“Subsea7 has been working for over 40 years in Angola and has an important track record in-country. We look forward to reinforcing our relationship with Azule and to delivering the project safely and as planned.”

Meanwhile, Norwegian contractor Aker Solutions on Tuesday confirmed that it had also won work for Agogo.

Azule subsidiary Eni Angola has tasked Aker Solutions to provide the Nkr1.5 billion ($144.9 million) engineering, manufacturing and delivery of a complete umbilical system totalling about 36 kilometres of both dynamic and static subsea production control umbilicals including spares, as well as ancillary equipment and services. The umbilicals will be manufactured at Aker Solutions’ site in Moss, Norway. The work will begin immediately and is planned to be delivered in the second quarter of next year.

“We are very pleased to have been awarded another important contract by Eni in Angola. We look forward to continuing our strong relationship by maintaining our focus on safe and efficient operations,” Aker Solutions head of subsea business Maria Peralta said.

Azule chief executive Adriano Mongini said: “Agogo marks the start of a new wave of major investments in Angola’s deep-water oil production. With the right partnerships, we trust that this project will be delivered in a safe and efficient manner bringing significant value of activities for the country’s oil and gas industry.”

Azule — a 50:50 joint venture between Eni and BP — is Angola’s largest independent oil and gas producer.

March 04, 2023