FPSO Léopold Sédar Senghor has departed a Singapore shipyard on 22 December and is enroute to Senegal and a job with Woodside Petroleum. The FPSO, named after Senegal’s first president, is traveling 12,000 nautical miles and will be acquired by Woodside Energy (Senegal) B.V. as operator of the initial phase of the Sangomar field development. The vessel will be deployed approximately 100 km south of Dakar as part of Senegal’s first offshore oil development.
“We are targeting first oil from Sangomar in mid-2024,” said Meg O’Neill, chief executive officer at Woodside. “Sangomar is Senegal’s first offshore oil development and we remain committed to working with the Government of Senegal and local communities to ensure that the benefits from our investments are felt broadly across the country. The successful and safe departure of the FPSO could not have been achieved without our strong relationship with Petrosen and our contractors MODEC and Seatrium.”
The FPSO was previously a VLCC (very large crude carrier) and was converted by MODEC into a fit-for-purpose FPSO suitable for use in the Sangomar field. Over the past 12 months MODEC has been responsible for the topsides integration and shipyard precommissioning work undertaken in Singapore.
The FPSO will be capable of processing 100,000 B/D of crude oil, 145,000 B/D of water injection, and will have a minimum storage capacity of 1.3 million bbl of crude oil.
Phase 1 of the Sangomar development includes the FPSO with subsea infrastructure and an expected production capacity of approximately 100,000 B/D.
Sangomar was discovered in 2014. The initial development phase is targeting reserves of around 230 million bbl of oil via 23 production, gas, and water injection wells.
The 300-m-long FPSO will be moored in around 800 m of water.
The FPSO Léopold Sédar Senghor is MODEC’s fifth FPSO to be delivered to West Africa. The contractor has some 30 years of operational experience in West Africa and currently operates two FPSOs in the region (Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire).
Woodside operates Sangomar with a 68.33% working interest. Partners include Petrosen (18%) and FAR Ltd. (13.67%).
