Construction has begun on Chevron’s Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel for the Agbami field. The field located offshore Nigeria in depths of up to 4,921 feet will be an all subsea development with wells tied back to the FPSO vessel. 

Chevron’s General Manager, Government and Public Affairs, Femi Odumabo, said in a statement that the construction process ceremony took place on November 9 in Okpo. At the same time as the ceremony was taking place in Nigeria a separate ceremony for the steel cutting took place in South Korea at the shipyard of the Daewoo Shipping and Marine Engineering Company.

According to Odumabo, construction work on the FPSO contract, which was awarded in February, is scheduled to be completed by late 2007. Odumabo said that the vessel is expected to have a processing capability of 250,000 bpd of oil and capable of storing about 2.15 million barrel of oil, it is also capable of handling about 450 Mmscf per day of natural gas. The Agbami field is located about 70 miles offshore of the central area of the Niger Delta.

Speaking at the ceremony, Jay Pryor the Managing Director of Chevron’s Nigeria/Mid-African Business Unit, said that the Agbami field which is being operated by Star Deep Water Petroleum Limited, an affiliate of Chevron Corporation, is of strategic importance to the company. “Agbami is a key asset in the business unit’s deepwater portfolio and one of Chevron’s “Big Five” major capital projects essential for the company’s overall production growth strategy,” stated Pryor. He stressed that “the commencement of the haul fabrication phase is another critical milestone in producing a major component of the project.”

The Chevron Chief said he is very happy with the progress of the Agbami project, adding that “we are right on track to bring this project on stream in 2008 with a maximum daily production of about 250,000 barrels of oil expected within six to 12 months following start up.”