Century Group, Samsung Sign Offshore Agreement, Stregthen Market Position

The Century Group, Africa’s only Nigerian-owned company that owns and operates floating, production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessels, is strengthening its market position in the country’s offshore oil and gas market.

It signed an agreement with Samsung Heavy Industries Nigeria (SHIN) on March 24, 2023 to renovate its FPSO Tamara Nanaye. The vessel, formerly known as FPSO Front Puffin, previously served as the Aje Field’s production hub on OML 113.

Century, as the OML 113 operator’s technical partner, successfully kept the Aje field operational, productive, and profitable from 2014 to 2021.

Century Group has now chosen SHIN to perform a de-bottlenecking upgrade on the FPSO in preparation for its redeployment offshore Nigeria later this year.

Previously, Hawilti reported that the FPSO Tamara Nanaye had been chosen to support the redevelopment of the Kalaekule Field on OML 72, which is operated by West Africa E&P, a joint venture between Dangote Exploration Assets Ltd and First E&P.

“The FPSO Tamara Nanaye is undergoing renovations such as adding topside production facilities, altering flaring capacity, change mooring system to spread mooring and adding a riser porch structure to increase the production capacity of the FPSO,” Century Group said in a post last week.

The upgrade of the FPSO in Nigeria will allow for a shorter renovation timeline and lower input costs than sending the vessel for maintenance overseas.

On April 3rd, Century Energy Group announced another agreement to complete, operate, and maintain Energy Link Infrastructure’s ELI Akaso floating, storage, and offloading (FSO) vessel (ELI). The FSO provides a new evacuation route to onshore OML 18 and neighboring fields, where production has been severely hampered due to the inability of the main evacuation pipeline, the Nembe Creek Trunk Line, to operate (NCTL).

Century Group has already deployed its personnel, infrastructure, and expertise under a Risk Service Contract (RSC) to finish the spread mooring of the FSO, which is expected to be completed on April 10th, 2023. With a storage capacity of 2 million barrels of oil, the FSO can provide a dependable export route for onshore fields seeking export market access.

Once operational, the evacuation system will include a 47km undersea pipeline with a throughput capacity of 100,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd).

Century Group continues to build local content in value-chain segments that have traditionally been reserved for international players with both transactions.