The Leopold Sedar Senghor floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit has arrived at its final destination off the coast of Senegal, for its use in the Sangomar oil field, according to Australian oil and gas company Woodside Energy.

Modec Offshore Production Systems supplied the platform under a contract awarded in 2020. The conversion of an old VLCC (very large crude carrier) was done in China by Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry (Dalian) Company, before the unit was transferred to the Keppel Offshore & Marine’s Tuas Shipyard in Singapore for completion of the topside work.

The FPSO sailed from Singapore last December, and is now positioned 100 kilometres off the Sengalese capital Dakar.

The Sangomar oil field is scheduled to start production in mid-2024. Woodside will oversee the commissioning of the FPSO and its hook-up to the 23 production, gas and water injection wells that make up the Sangomar Field Development Phase 1. Phase 1, which includes the stand-alone FPSO with subsea infrastructure, is expected to have a production capacity of 100,000 barrels of oil per day.

Perth-based Woodside has an 82% interest in the oil field, with Société Pétrolière du Sénégal (Petrosen), the national oil and gas company, holding the remaining 18%.

Senegal is also moving ahead with a floating LNG (FLNG) project on the maritime border between Mauritania and Senegal, the Greater Tortue  Ahmeyim (GTA) Project Phase 1. Production will begin this year.

The partners are BP, Kosmos Energy, Petrosen, and Société Mauritanienne Des Hydrocarbures.

The Gimi FLNG vessel for the project was converted by Seatrium Group of Singapore, in partnership with Norway’s Golar LNG, from a 1975-built Moss LNG carrier with a storage capacity of 125,000 cubic metres.

According to Golar LNG, which will operate the FLNG under a 20-year contract, the vessel arrived at the GTA field off Mauritania and Senegal on January 10. The vessel would then moor offshore Tenerife while awaiting completion of the necessary preparatory activities.