The floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel, a pivotal element of the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) Phase 1 LNG project, has successfully arrived at its designated offshore location. Positioned 40km offshore at a depth of 120m, the FPSO vessel is being securely moored and prepared for operation by bp on behalf of the project’s partners: bp, Kosmos Energy, PETROSEN, and SMH.
The FPSO’s arrival marks a significant milestone in the GTA Phase 1 development, designed to tap into deep-water gas reservoirs approximately 120km offshore via a sophisticated subsea system. The vessel journeyed over 12,000 nautical miles from the COSCO Qidong Shipyard in China to reach the GTA site.
Dave Campbell, bp’s Senior Vice President for Mauritania and Senegal, expressed his enthusiasm: “bp is investing in today’s energy system – and tomorrow’s too, and GTA Phase 1 represents this investment in action. This is a huge landmark step for the project, an innovative LNG development that is leading the way in unlocking gas resources for Mauritania and Senegal. The FPSO vessel has travelled halfway around the globe, and its safe arrival and installation is testament to the resilience, skills, teamwork, and huge effort of all the partners involved. We are now entirely focused on safe completion of the project as we continue to work towards first gas.”
GTA Phase 1 is projected to produce around 2.3 million tonnes of LNG annually over a span of more than 20 years. This initiative represents the inaugural gas development in this new offshore basin shared by Mauritania and Senegal. With subsea wells located at depths reaching up to 2,850m, the project boasts the deepest subsea infrastructure in Africa. The multibillion-dollar investment has been recognized as a National Project of Strategic Importance by the Presidents of both Mauritania and Senegal.
During regular operations, the FPSO will accommodate up to 140 personnel. Spanning an area equivalent to two football fields and rising 10 stories high, the vessel comprises over 81,000 tonnes of steel, 37,000m of pipe spools, and 1.52 million meters of cable.
The FPSO is engineered to process over 500 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, removing water, condensate, and impurities before transferring the gas via pipeline to the Floating Liquified Natural Gas (FLNG) vessel at the Hub Terminal, located approximately 10km offshore. Here, the gas will be cryogenically cooled, liquefied, and stored before being loaded onto LNG carriers for export. A portion of the gas will be allocated to meet the rising energy demand in both host countries.
