Ghanaian firm builds first FPSO modules

Ghana’s quest at playing a pivotal role in the oil and gas industry has received another significant boost with the design and fabrication of two topside FPSO modules at the Takoradi Port by wholly Ghanaian owned Belmet 7.

The two topside FPSO modules, which are a pigging skid and a hang-off platform, are the first to be designed and fabricated in-country, since the discovery of hydrocarbons in the country.

They will help address the turret-bearing challenges of FPSO Kwame Nkrumah and thereby restore it to its full operating capacity.

As part of efforts to rectify the turret-bearing failure, which affected the oil offloading capacity of FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, Tullow Oil in 2018 commissioned a 23-month project for the design, fabrication, installation and integration of an Oil Offloading System (OOSys).

Originally, works on such Oil Offloading Systems are awarded and done outside Ghana.

Tullow Oil awarded the contract to Subsea 7, a subsea engineering, construction and services company, which in turn subcontracted the fabrication of some of the project’s key components to Belmet 7, an Oil and Gas logistics fabrication company based in Takoradi, in December 2018.

The contract involves the design and fabrication of 7 suction piles, pigging skid and a hang-off platform, which are topside FPSO modules.

Of significance is the design and fabrication of the pigging skid and hang-off platform which will be the first to be done in-country since the discovery of oil and gas in Ghana in 2007.

Site Representative of Subsea 7 Theophilus Ofori said all the workers who did the design and fabrication were Ghanaians.

“We are very delighted to have achieved this feat. Almost everything about the pigging skid and hang-off platform was done here in the yard of Belmet 7. It has helped our engineers and the local companies because of the various roles that they all played. What you have witnessed here is we giving true meaning to our ability to participate in our oil and gas sector that is the local content agenda being pursued by the Petroleum Commission.”

He explained that the successful completion of the work will build the confidence of oil and gas operators in Ghana about the possibility of having such modules fabricated in-country.

“Normally, fabrication of these modules is done in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and others. If the fabrication had happened outside the country, all the monies and associated benefits would have gone there. Now that we have been able to take on that challenge successfully all the benefits have stayed in Ghana. This will also show to oil and gas operators in the country that we are ready to take on other major components like the accommodation module, refinery/processing module, crude oil offloading module and others.”

Marketing and Public Relations Officer of the Takoradi Port Peter Amo Bediako said the Port has since the discovery of oil and gas in 2007 been strategically positioning itself to provide the needed platform for oil and gas services.

He said the Takoradi Port will continue to offer the necessary incentives to encourage more companies to be able to service the oil and gas industry.

“We are on track in achieving our vision of becoming a dominant oil and gas services hub in West Africa. Since 2007 when oil was discovered in commercial quantities, the port has been strategically supporting not only the domestic oil and gas industry but in the whole of West Africa. In line with that, management decided to lease parts of the port to oil and gas support companies. And so, we have put in place a flexible regime to support any oil and gas industry and other industries to support the economic growth of Ghana.”

The design and fabrication of the topside FPSO modules is a major boost in the local content participation requirements of the Petroleum Commission with the attendant revenue flow to local content providers.

The project has also provided an avenue for skills transfer and capacity building in a very strategic area of the Oil and Gas sector.