Italian and French players lend Saipem a helping hand with ‘critical’ subsea ops at BP’s largest gas project

Rana Diving, an Italian in-house subsea engineering, project management, and diving operations provider, and Bourbon, France’s vessel owner and offshore services provider, have assisted in wrapping up subsea work off the coasts of Mauritania and Senegal at a project that is said to be the biggest one in the portfolio of the UK’s energy giant BP.

According to Rana Diving, it has performed, together with Bourbon, 150 days of continuous saturation diving in water depths between 32 and 120-meter sea water (msw) for Saipem and BP on the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) liquefied natural gas (LNG) project offshore Mauritania and Senegal.

The Italian firm explains that it contributed to setting the stage for BP’s gas project to come online by executing what it describes as “critical” activities, encompassing the installation of 30” spools and flowline termination assemblies. The GTA project lies around 40 kilometers offshore on the maritime border of Mauritania and Senegal.

“This project involved more than 100 of our people between diving, HRF, and engineering teams. Everyone’s commitment, cooperation, and ‘chronic unease’ have been key to delivering this complex project to the highest industry standards and safety levels,” underlined Rana Diving.

The GTA Phase 1 development, which is said to have the deepest subsea infrastructure in Africa with wells in water depths of up to 2,850 meters, is expected to produce around 2.3 million tonnes of LNG annually for over 20 years. The first LNG is currently slated for the fourth quarter of 2024.

Golar LNG’s FLNG Gimi arrived at the project location in January 2024 and the FPSO Tortue followed suit in June 2024. Gas is expected to be produced from an ultra-deepwater subsea system. The mid-water FPSO Tortue will process the gas, removing heavier hydrocarbon components. Afterward, gas will be transferred to the FLNG Gimi.

While most of the gas would be liquefied by the FLNG facilities, enabling export to international markets, some would be allocated to help meet growing demand in the two host countries. Allseas’ vessels were hired to execute the subsea pipelay scope.

BP describes this gas development as the biggest project in its portfolio, with enough gas to support production for at least 20 years, as the total gas resources in the field are estimated to be around 15 trillion cubic feet.