TOTALENERGIES SURINAM BLOCK 58 GRANMORGU FPSO

The international oil company (IOC) Total Energies (Total) and its partner the independent US-based Apache are gearing up in the development of the TOTALENERGIES SURINAM BLOCK 58 GRANMORGU FPSO. Block 58 is located offshore Surinam with a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.

Surinam is neighboring Guyana in South America where the other IOC ExxonMobil is running along a golden path with the Stabroek basin where it deploys series of Liza FPSO.
In the Block 58 the working interests are shared between:

Total 50% the operator
Apache 50%

Project History

Total and Apache have announced four Suriname discoveries since the beginning of 2020, Keskesi East, Maka Central, Sapakara West and Kwaskwasi.
Beyond these discoveries, Total is expecting additional upsides motivating the partners to proceed on fast-track in the Block 58 development.
In this perspective, Total has tendered a competitive pre-front end engineering and design (pre-FEED).
Some of the companies to be selected for this competitive pre-FEED should be awarded a FEED contract to be converted by the end of 2021 into engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract.

TOTALENERGIES SURINAM BLOCK 58 GRANMORGU FPSO still had a long time to go.
Total is preferring to tender this FPSO under the form of a lease and operate contract which will limit the number of bidders.
Today, the few contractors able to offer a lease and operate contract are fully booked for the coming years and may not be ready to increase their risk.
Therefore, Total contractual strategy may be reviewed depending on the response of the market for bidding on this FPSO.
Anyway, Total intends to start production as early as in 2025.

— June 2021 —
TotalEnergies awarded a pre-FEED contract to the tandem Technip Energies – Yinson.
Technip Energies Paris office will handle the topsides while Yinson Olso office will focus on the hull.

— October 2021 —
The project may suffer one year delay because of the quantity of associated gas to handle in parallel to the oil.
All together, the Surinam territorial water may content more than 30 trillion cubic feet of (tcf) of gas.
The quantities of this gas in the Block 58 are still under appraisal, but they may require later on export infrastructures such as floating or onshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) units.
In the long run, all the additional discoveries of oil and gas come as good news, but they also complexify any scenario for early oil production.
For these reasons, the pre-FEED work may be extended in 2022 for FEED to last until mid 2023.

— November 2022 —
TotalEnergies is considering a FPSO with 120,000 barrels per day (b/d) oil treatment capacity.
The final investment decision (FID) is expected in 2024.

— March 2023 —
The project has been delayed due to a reassessment of the seismic data.
TotalEnergies and Apache continues to explore the Krabdagu and Sapakara fields as part of the Block 58.
The FEED should be awarded in 2023 either to Modec, either to the tandem Technip Energies – Yinson.

— May 2023 —
TotalEnergies and Apache make major discoveries and evaluated the field at 800 million barrels of oil.
TotalEnergies and Apache are still running some tests and evaluations on several wells, before moving forward.
The FEED should be awarded before the end of 2023.

— September 2023 —
TotalEnergies confirmed that FEED should be awarded by the end of 2023.
The FID should be taken by the end of 2024 and EPC should start in 2025, with operations expected in 2028.
Technip Energies and Yinson are leading the negotiations to perform the FEED work.
These two companies have been working on the pre-FEED for two years, they are now in competitive FEED.

— December 2023 —
TotalEnergies selected two final bidders to perform a competitive FEED:
– Modec with CIMC Raffles
– SBM Offshore with Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS) or China Merchants Heavy Industry (CMHI)

— March 2024 —
TotalEnergies confirmed its target to made the FID before the end of 2024.
Apache and TotalEnergies are aware that any delays is the decision making are increasing cost due to inflation.
Update 2 – SBM Offshore seems to lead the competition and is offering its Fast4Ward design.

— May 2024 —
TotalEnergies confirmed that SBM Offshore is the preferred bidder over Modec.

— June 2024 —
TotalEnergies has reserved the hull for the FPSO from CMHI, which will be developed at Haimen yard.
CMHI will design the hull as a Fast4Ward hull.
SBM Offshore was the contractor that introduce CMHI to TotalEnergies.
For the topsides, if SBM Offshore is awarded, the topsides could be manufactured by a Chinese developer:
– Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry
– CMHI
– Bomesc Offshore Engineering
– Penglai Jutal Offshore Engineering
So far, the EPC contract was not awarded, but SBM Offshore is clearly leading the negotiation.

— September 2024 —
TotalEnergies and APA make the FID for the project renamed GranMorgu FPSO.
Staatsolie, the Surinam national oil company (NOC), is planning to invest in the project for 20% interest.
This investment has helped TotalEnergies and APA to make FID.
The GranMorgu FPSO should reach a process capacity of 220,000 barrels per day (b/d) of oil
The EPC contract should be awarded before the end of 2024, with operations expected by 2028.

— October 2024 —
TotalEnergies confirmed the choice of SBM Offshore to design and build the FPSO.
For the first time, TotalEnergies will use the standard design proposed by SBM Offshore in order to reduce costs and delivery time.
TotalEnergies is planning series of FPSOs to develop the Surinam block on the same model as ExxonMobil in adjacent Guyana.