Bumi Armada wins FPSO job from U's EnQuest

by **Cals** Sun 17 Nov 2013, 21:31

Published: Saturday November 16, 2013 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Saturday November 16, 2013 MYT 8:14:33 AM
Bumi Armada wins FPSO job from U's EnQuest

PETALING JAYA: Bumi Armada Bhd has clinched a long-awaited floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) job from the UK’s EnQuest Plc for the Kraken field in the North Sea, boosting its fleet of FPSOs to seven.
This means the firm edged out Teekay Corp, with which Bumi Armada was locked in a two-horse race that was said to be too close to call.
While no contract values were disclosed, the Kraken FPSO is believed to be worth at least US$1bil (RM3.21bil) in capital expenditure.
The Kraken FPSO is also twice the size of Bumi Armada’s current FPSOs, besides being its first undertaking in the harsh North Sea environment.
Bumi Armada, Malaysia’s largest operator of FPSOs, told Bursa Malaysia yesterday that its subsidiary Bumi Armada UK Ltd had received a letter of interim agreement (LOIA) from EnQuest Heather Ltd, EnQuest ENS Ltd, First Oil and Gas Ltd, Nautical Petroleum Ltd and Nautical Petroleum AG.
The LOIA will pave the way for the final award, which is slated to be signed before Nov 30.
London Stock Exchange-listed EnQuest, the largest independent oil producer in the North Sea, is a 60% owner and operator of the Kraken oilfield.
Cairn Energy Plc and First Oil Plc hold the remaining 25% and 15%, respectively.
Nautical Petroleum and Nautical Petroleum AG are wholly-owned units of Cairn Energy.
Kraken is one of the largest oil and gas projects in the North Sea with an anticipated production life of up to 25 years. First oil is expected in 2016 or 2017.
“The North Sea contains western Europe’s largest oil and natural gas reserves and is one of the world’s key non-Opec producing regions,” Bumi Armada chief executive officer Hassan Basma said in a statement.
“The North Sea contains significant reserves that have yet to be developed. We expect that the heavy oil production technology applied in the Kraken FPSO will unlock similar heavy oil reserves in the North Sea and other parts of the world.”