Bumi Armada JV secures RM9.5b FPSO contract off Angola

KUALA LUMPUR: Bumi Armada Bhd has received a letter of intent from Italy’s eni Angola S.p.A for a RM9.5bil floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) contract at Block 15/06, East Hub off Angola.

In a statement on Monday, Bumi Armada said the letter of intent was issued to its subsidiary Bumi Armada Offshore Holdings Ltd and Angoil Bumi JV Lda.

The letter authorises Bumi Armada to start engineering and procurement work on the FPSO immediately on March 28,2014.

“First oil is scheduled for end October 2016,” it said.

Bumi Armada chief executive officer Hassan Basma said the letter of intent is its second largest capital expenditure of more than US$1bil FPSO award in six months and underscores its successful migration into the large-project FPSO sector.

“This is the second time eni has turned to Bumi Armada for an FPSO in West Africa and we will continue to collaborate with our tried and tested value-chain, as we have done in the past, to successfully deliver this project for our repeat customer.

“This project is our first VLCC-tanker conversion. The Armada Ali will be used for conversion. The 15/06 FPSO will be delivered in 31 months and this project will take Bumi Armada’s FPSO fleet to eight, clearly moving us into the top-tier of global FPSO players,” he said.

Bumi Armada said eni Angola is a unit of eni S.p.A., an Italy-based multinational oil and gas company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Block 15/06 is operated by eni Angola (35%) with SSI Fifteen Ltd (25%), Sonangol P&P (30%), Falcon Oil Holdings Angola SA (5%) and Statoil Angola Block 15/06 (5%).

The contract is expected to contribute positively to the revenue and earnings of the Bumi Armada for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2014.