Saipem Secures $1 Billion Contract for Shell’s Bonga North Deepwater Project in Nigeria

Saipem, in a consortium with two Nigerian companies, has secured an offshore contract worth around $1 billion with Shell for a deepwater oil and gas project off the coast of Nigeria, Offshore Energy magazine has reported.
As part of the contract with Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo), Saipem will deliver the Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Installation (EPCI) of risers, flowlines, subsea umbilicals, and associated subsea structures for the Bonga North Project, located 130 kilometres offshore Nigeria.
Design and fabrication activities will be carried out locally, also involving Nigerian suppliers and subcontractors, the report added.
The contract was secured in a consortium with KOA Oil & Gas and AVEON Offshore, and has an overall value of about $1 billion, while Saipem’s share amounted to approximately $900 million.

According to the report, TechnipFMC will also supply Subsea 2.0 production systems for the development, including the design and manufacture of subsea tree systems, manifolds, jumpers, controls, and services.
With water depths exceeding 1,000 meters, Bonga North will be tied back to the Shell-operated FPSO Bonga in OML 118, where production began in 2005. The FPSO, which can produce 225,000 barrels of oil per day, reached a production milestone in 2023, thanks to its one-billionth barrel of crude oil.
According to Shell, the project encompasses the drilling, completion, and start-up of 16 wells, of which half are production ones and the remaining half water injection wells, modifications to the existing FPSO Bonga Main, and the installation of new subsea hardware tied back to the unit for which Akselos provided a structural digital twin in 2020.

Defined as substantial, meaning it is worth between $250 million and $500 million, the TechnipFMC contract covers the design and manufacture of subsea tree systems, manifolds, jumpers, controls, and services.
President of Subsea at TechnipFMC, Jonathan Landes, , said, “Shell was the first to adopt our Subsea 2.0 configure-to-order solution, and continues to deploy it across multiple basins, underscoring its commitment to the technology globally. This award further positions us for future deepwater opportunities in the region.”
The award will be included in TechnipFMC’s inbound orders this quarter of 2024.
Last week, SNEPCo, a subsidiary of the UK-headquartered Shell, made a Final Investment Decision (FID) for a deepwater oil and gas project off the coast of Nigeria, which will be developed as a subsea tie-back to an existing floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) unit.

Shell’s investment in the Bonga North project is expected to generate an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) over the hurdle rate for the firm’s upstream business, which continues to look for ways to boost performance through near-field opportunities, like Bonga North, leveraging technical expertise, strong partnerships, and a model built on simplification and replication.
Shell believes Bonga North will help ensure its integrated gas and upstream business continues to drive cash generation into the next decade. The operator expects the project to sustain oil and gas production at the Bonga facility because of its estimated recoverable resource volume of over 300 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe).

The Bonga North project’s peak production is forecast to be 110,000 barrels of oil per day, with the first oil anticipated by the decade-end, it said.
SNEPCo (55 per cent) operates the Bonga field in partnership with Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (20 per cent), Nigerian Agip Exploration (12.5 per cent), and TotalEnergies Exploration and Production Nigeria (12.5 per cent), on behalf of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC).
Shell’s Integrated Gas and Upstream Director, Zoë Yujnovich, had said, “This is another significant investment, which will help us to maintain stable liquids production from our advantaged upstream portfolio.”

This comes after Shell made arrangements in January 2024 to divest its interest in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) joint venture (JV), with a net book value of around $2.8 billion, aiming to turn all its attention to deepwater and integrated gas businesses in the African country.

Emmanuel Addeh

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