Côte d'Ivoire: Altera hires DOF to install the Spirit FPSO offshore the country

Altera Infrastructure has hired DOF to install the Voyageur Spirit floating production, storage and offloading unit (FPSO) and a floating storage unit (FSO) on the Baleine oil field operated by Eni offshore Côte d'Ivoire.

The project includes the complete installation of seabed mooring systems, a flowline between the FSO (a converted shuttle tanker Nordic Brasilia) and the FPSO Voyageur Spirit, and their associated equipment.

Altera was awarded the contract to redeploy the FPSO and FSO in October 2023.

Voyageur Spirit is a cylindrical FPSO, which previously operated on the Huntington field in the North Sea until 2020. The shuttle tanker Nordic Brasilia was converted into an FSO to provide additional storage capacity for the Voyageur FPSO. Altera owns and operates both vessels.

The scope of the DOF contract includes project management, engineering, transportation, installation and connection of floating units in the field.

According to DOF, it will mobilize the Skandi Skansen anchor-handling vessel for the project, for a total of over 130 ship-days. Offshore operations are scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2024.

The FSO and FPSO are due to be deployed on the Whale field with a firm 15-year contract as part of the second phase of the project.

The project will be developed on an accelerated schedule, with a planned start-up date for phase 2 in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Eni began oil and gas production from the first phase of the Whale development in August 2023, with first production coming less than two years after discovery in September 2021 and less than a year and a half after the final investment decision.

Baleine has been described as the largest hydrocarbon discovery in the Ivorian sedimentary basin .

Eni currently holds interests in Blocks CI-101 and CI-802 - where the Baleine field extends - as well as five other deepwater blocks in Côte d'Ivoire, all of which are operated by Eni.  Petroci Holding as partner.

As a reminder, Voyageur Spirit was hot-stored in dry dock from July 2020 to August 2022 at Kishorn Port & Dry Drock (KPL), where she was then moored outside the quay for a further eight months.

The FPSO was supported by KPL's port and marine staff throughout this period. Voyageur Spirit floated on Cosco Shipping's heavy lift vessel, Xin Yao Hua, before heading to Drydocks World in Dubai for life extension work and field-specific modifications, in collaboration with Nordic Brasilia FSO.