India: FBAOL Signs Seven Year Contract for FPSO Chartering

Bumi Armada Berhad’s joint venture company, Forbes Bumi Armada Offshore Limited (FBAOL), signed a seven year fixed term time charter (TC) with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONCC) for the provision of a Floating, Production, Storage and Off- loading vessel (FPSO) which will be located in the Dl field, 200 km off the west coast of Mumbai, in India.

The time charter provides for a further 6 years annual extension periods at ONGC’s discretion.

FBAOL is a joint venture company between Malaysia-based Bumi Armada Berhad and Forbes & Company Limited, a Bombay Stock Exchange listed company. Forbes is the majority shareholder. Executive Director/CEO of Bumi Armada Berhad, Mr Hassan Basma said, “This contract follows on from the Notification of Award dated 25 June 201 1, enabling us to proceed with conversion work on the donor vessel, a tanker which we have acquired for this project.”

The FPSO will have 50,000 barrels processing capacity, 580,000 barrels storage capacity, and equipped with an internal turret designed for monsoon conditions prevalent at the field. The Design life of the FPSO is 1 5 years.

As the world’s eighth largest FPSO player, Mr Basma added that Bumi Armada will bring the weight of its experience and its people to bear on this project, enabling a transfer of knowledge to its joint-venture partner, Forbes & Company Limited.

“Wherever we have operated in the world, we have brought our commitment to developing local content through a plethora of channels such as job creation, training and sourcing goods and services locally to support our operations and we look forward to working closely with our joint venture partners in this respect. This approach is a direct translation of our global execution, local delivery model which we practice everywhere in the world.” Mr Basma elaborated.

“Forbes as a major Indian public listed company brings with it critical access to and knowledge of local manufacturing, services and financial institutions thus setting the scene for a smooth transfer of know-how in support of Bumi Armada and Forbes’ long term plans for the Indian market.”

This FPSO is expected to be delivered last quarter of 201 2 with first oil due end December 2012.