Total E&P Congo awarded Fugro a five-year, US$100 million contract for remote operated vehicle (ROV) services and remote subsea tooling in the Moho Nord field offshore Africa.

Moho Nord field is about 75km off the coast of Pointe Noire in the Republic of Congo.

The contract calls for Fugro to supply four 200hp FCV 3000 work class ROV systems and innovative blowout preventer (BOP) tooling, which will be installed on board three mobile drilling units and one field support vessel.

Fugro’s Singapore base has already mobilized three ROV systems that are now operating in Moho Nord. Fugro says that two of the ROVs are on board ultra deepwater drillships and will be working in water depths of approximately 1200m. The fourth system will be installed on a semisubmersible vessel, which is under construction in China and expected to join operations with its ROV later this year.

Fugro specifically designed an ROV equipped with a BOP skid to use for this project to perform subsea BOP intervention and testing.

According to Fugro, the primary responsibility for controlling the BOP lies with the rig, but the ROV-operated BOP skids are also used to operate the BOP in accordance with Total’s requirements. When a subsea BOP is installed, under Total’s test procedures various rams are operated and tested on a regular basis. The ROVs also routinely inject glycol into the BOP to prevent hydrate build-up.

The terms of the agreement require Furgo to be responsible for additional ROV tasks including setting up regular fluid injection, drilling re-entry, bullseye checks and routine video monitoring, inspection, cleaning and intervention tasks on and around the BOP, in addition to alignment control during manifold installation.

Fugro says that each operational drillship carries three ROV personnel for 12-hour coverage, and this can be increased to six people and 24-hour coverage for certain operations such as BOP installation and recovery.

Moho Nord is comprised of a total of 28 subsea wellheads tied back to floating production units, with 17 additional wells from a new tension leg platform. The construction phase will run for the next two years, and will use Technip’s G1200, and multi-purpose deepwater vessel, Deep Pioneer, as the primary installation vessels. First oil is expected during 2015 with an estimated 140,000 boe/d of oil by 2017.

“Moho Nord is the first major field in which rig BOP test closures have been carried out using Fugro’s new BOP skid system,” says Richard Mathieson, Fugro Subsea ROV services project manager. “This uses a special high-flow pump on the ROV to drive further pumps located on the BOP skid, allowing the transfer of large volumes of water-based fluid from the skid reservoirs into the rig’s BOP hydraulic rams when directed.”

Fugro is expanding its current Pointe Noire base to provide operational, maintenance and repair services and also training on FCV ROVs and tooling for expatriate and Congolese personnel.

Last month, UTEC awarded Sonardyne International a multi-million dollar contract to supply Fusion 6G acoustic positioning technology for the Moho Nord subsea project. Fusion 6G is a subsea construction and survey tool. The equipment will be used to support the installation of 230km of rigid pipeline, 23km of flexible pipes, 50km of umbilicals and numerous manifolds, plus over 50 subsea structures and rigid jumpers, which UTEC is responsible for.

UTEC was awarded the full survey services contract in February.

Total is the operator of Moho Nord with 53.5% interest. Partners include Chevron (31.5%) and Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (15%).

Source: www.oedigital.com

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