A contract to supply a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for development of Vietnam’s Te Giac Trang offshore oilfield was signed in the southern coastal province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau on November 20.
Under the contract, the Hoang Long Joint Operating Company will hire the FPSO vessel in seven years at a cost of US$700 million.
The Malaysian group Bumi Armada will buy a ship to be converted into the floating production, storage and offloading facility, while VietSovpetro will re-fit the vessel, run trials, serve as operator and provide maintenance during the contracted period.
The FPSO is designed to store up to 1 million barrels of crude and handle 45,000 barrels of oil per day. It is upgraded from a 12 year-old oil ship Jag Layak. The upgrade will take 22 months at the Kepple Shipyard in Singapore.
The FPSO is scheduled to be put into operation on June 30, 2011, in line with the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN)’s plan for development of the Te Giac Trang oilfield.
Also at the contract signing ceremony, the Bumi Armada-Vietsovpetro partnership presented 10 scholarships worth US$7,000 to students at the PVN’s oil and gas industry college and donated US$9,000 to the vocational training centre for the disabled under the Ho Chi Minh City sponsorship association for the disabled and orphans.
VOVNews/VNA