Yinson Holdings to Operate FPSO at Ghana’s OCTP Project

Malaysian offshore operator Yinson Holdings Bhd has announced today it will be converting the Ulriken, a 1998-built VLCC into a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel for use offshore Ghana under a long-term contract from eni Ghana. This vessel will be installed at Ghana’s Offshore Cape Three Points Block (OCTP), located in the Tano Basin approximately 60 km offshore.

The OCTP development comprises five fields and its success is of paramount importance to the country of Ghana as its reserves of approximately 1.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas and 500 million barrels of oil will “underpin the growth of a domestic thermal power sector and accelerate Ghana’s industrial development,” according to energy trader Vitol in a statement today.

Ghanian President John Mahama described the OCTP project as the largest item of foreign direct investment in Ghana since independence in 1957, according to a report by Reuters today. $7 billion was the quoted value of the project.

Yinson Holdings says their contract with eni Ghana involves a firm charter period of 15 years with 5 yearly extension options. The estimated aggregate value of the contract during the firm charter period is approximately up to USD $2.539 billion and an estimated total aggregate value of up to USD $3.256 billion if ENI exercises all 5 yearly extension options.

The Ulriken was purchased by Yinson Holdings last October from Golden State Petro (IOM 1-A) PLC at a price of USD $26.25 million and since then, the vessel’s name has been changed to Yinson Genesis.

The Yinson Genesis will be operated by Yinson Holdings and is expected to commence oil production in the OCTP block in 2017 with first gas in 2018. Peak production will be 80,000 boed in 2019.

The OCTP block is operated by eni Ghana (47.2%) with other partners of the joint venture, Vitol Upstream Ghana Limited (37.8%) and the Ghanaian state-owned Ghana National Petroleum Company (15%) with the option for an additional 5%.

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