Malaysia: Bumi Armada Signs FPSO Contract with Apache

Malaysia-based international company, Bumi Armada Berhad, signed today a contract to supply and operate an FPSO for Apache Energy Ltd (Apache), to be located in block. WA-49-L of the Balnaves Field, north-west Australia The contract is  for an initial 4 years fixed term time charter with an option of a further four year annual extension period thereafter.

The contract, valued at approximately RM1.46 bil is expected to contribute positively to the revenue and earnings of Bumi Armada for the financial year ending 31 December 2011.

Bumi Armada’s Executive Director and CEO, Mr. Hassan Basma, said,

“We are delighted Apache Energy chose to award us with this contract for their second operated FPSO (floating, production, storage and offloading vessel). This award yet again underscores Bumi Armada’s strong engineering capabilities and rising reputation for “on time, on budget, to high quality” delivery of major projects. It signals our entry into the exciting but demanding Australian market and ushers in yet another growth period for the company. The contract increases the Bumi Armada order backlog to more than RM 7 billion.

 “We are grateful to Apache Energy for this opportunity to work together on this project and look forward to building the relationship with Apache with this new project. 

“It has been an exciting six months of collaboration between our two companies on engineering and project definition and I believe this trust and partnership will strengthen as we move forward.”

Work has already begun with refurbishing an existing FPSO (the former Armada Prima) for this project with the objective of delivering the FPSO for First Oil in Q1 of 2014. The long schedule is to synchronize the arrival of the FPSO with  subsea installation and cyclone season.

The FPSO, named Armada Claire, has been designed with a disconnectable riser turret mooring system for cyclonic weather in 135m water depth. Bumi Armada owns this technology which allows it to work in cyclone and hurricane-prone  areas like South East Asia, Australia, India and Gulf of Mexico.

The purpose-built double hull disconnectable FPSO has oil processing capacity of 80,000 barrels (bbls) per day, produced water handling capacity of 30,000 bbls per day, water injection capacity of 60,000 bbls per day, gas re-injection  capacity of 53 mmscfd and storage capacity of 750,000 bbls. The riser turret mooring is designed for four risers. The transport and installation of the riser turret mooring is the subject of another tender yet to be launched and for which Bumi Armada is a qualified bidder.

“Apache Energy is major Australian oil and gas producer, and welcomes the engagement of Bumi Armada in our growing operations and development portfolio,” said Mr. Thomas M. Maher, Apache’s region vice president and managing director in Australia.