Perenco starts up Hilli Episeyo FLNG off Cameroon

LNG shipping company Golar LNG confirmed on Monday that first production of LNG has started from the Hilli Episeyo FLNG located offshore Cameroon. 

Hilli Episeyo, constructed by Keppel in Singapore, is the world’s first converted Floating Liquefaction (FLNG) vessel. It was named at a ceremony in Keppel Shipyard in early July 2017.

Hilli Episeyo was converted from the 1975-built Moss LNG carrier with a storage capacity of 125,000 m3. It was designed for a liquefaction capacity of about 2.4 million tonnes of LNG per annum.

FLNG Hilli Episeyo left the shipyard in Singapore in October 2017 and arrived in Cameroon in late November where it was moved and connected to an offshore gas field. The unit was then prepared and put in operation offshore Kribi, Cameroon for Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH) and Perenco Cameroon.

Perenco and SNH in September 2015 signed an agreement with Golar to develop the remaining reserves of Sanaga into GPL for the domestic market and LNG for exportation through an innovative Floating LNG vessel to be moored offshore Sanaga.

Sanaga was the first offshore gas field to be developed in Cameroon to feed a third party power plant. The two gas wells are producing from an offshore production module, and are exported to a gas processing plant at Kribi, where it is treated, to reach the required specifications of the 216 MW Kribi Power Plant.

Fortuna FLNG

Golar also said on Monday that the Golar Gandria LNG carrier has been removed from layup and is now at Keppel Shipyard in Singapore where it will be converted into an FLNG unit meant for the Ophir-operated Fortuna development off Equatorial Guinea.

Golar announced it was in the process of moving the Gandria from layup for positioning to Singapore’s Keppel Shipyard earlier in March.

Keppel was awarded a construction contract for conversion of an LNG carrier to a floating liquefaction facility (FLNG) unit in May 2017.

Offshore Energy Today Staff