Hess’ challenging Pecan ultra-deepwater project off Ghana is set to move into its front-end engineering and design phase imminently.
Information gathered indicates that, IntecSea has completed pre-FEED, and most industry sources expect the Australian-owned contractor to secure the FEED contract.
Hess is in talks with contractors about subsea and floating production, storage and offloading facilities needed for what is likely to be a phased development in about 2500 metres of water.
The New York-listed player’s final investment decision has been delayed by the maritime boundary dispute between Ghana and the Ivory Coast which was resolved in Ghana’s favour late last year. Prior to the legal dispute, Hess had targeted first oil pour by 2020..
The Ivory Coast’s boundary line claim runs through the centre of Hess’ Deepwater Tano-Cape Three Points (DT-CTP) block and takes in the Pecan, Pecan North, Almond and Cob discoveries. Three other finds — Beech, Hickory North and Paradise — lie outside the recently contested area.
Despite this dispute, industry sources said Hess has remained in serious talks with umbilical, flowline and riser players, as well as FPSO providers through 2016 and 2017.. Key FPSO companies — including Modec, SBM Offshore and BW Offshore — are thought to have been sounded out by Hess.
Surf providers such as Technip, Saipem, Subsea 7, McDermott and Emas have also been approached.
Sources suggested the FPSO will be sited on Pecan, with other discoveries feeding production to the vessel via subsea tiebacks.
A dozen or so subsea wells may be needed alongside either steel catenary or hybrid risers. There have been suggestions that Hess could also look at using one or more tension leg platforms to develop outlying finds if justified.
Oil would be offloaded into shuttle tankers, while gas would be exported to a landfall in Ghana.
Pecan’s FPSO manager is Ken Larson, who was previously project manager for Maersk Oil’s Chissonga project off Angola.
Hess holds a 40% stake in DT-CPT and is partnered by Lukoil on 50% and state-owned GNPC with 10%.
