Lundin Oil: Two up for PM-3 floater
Upstream, June 6
James Tham
Modiec and Bumi Armada look set to land a hard-fought contract to supply a newbuild floating storage and offloading vessel to Lundin Oil's Bunga Kekwa phase-two development in block PM-3 in the Malaysia/Vietnam Commercial Arrangement Area.
According to industry sources, the pair beat off competition from Tanker Pacific in partnership with FPSO Tech, a company founded by ex-senior officials from Malaysian state oil company Petronas.
Upstream understands that Modec-Bumi's newbuild price came in at less than a percentage point higher than Tanker-FPSO's proposed conversion. The bid evaluation process, led by Petronas, was delayed for months by heavily-politicised lobbying on both sides.
According to industry sources, the capital expenditure for the FSO is estimated at $70 million to $80 million. Lundin is still undecided on whether to lease the floater for 20 years or purchase it.
The Swedish explorer had earlier short-listed Bumi with Modec; Tanker with FPSO; Trenergy with Malaysia Shipyard and Engineering; and Aker with Saipem.
The other bidders were SBM, Bluewater, Nortrans and Care Offshore.
Currently, the Bunga Kekwa oilfield in PM-3 is producing around 18,000 barrels per day of oil through an early production scheme involving an unmanned monopod wellhead platform and a leased floating production, storage and offloading vessel.
Phase two, which involves larger platforms and an FSO, seeks to bring on stream neighbouring finds with targeted production of 40,000 bpd of oil and 250 million cubic feet per day of gas in late 2003. |
