Bumi nets $2.9 billion contract Malaysia-based Bumi Armada has won a $2.9 billion contract with Italian multinational Eni to provide a floating production, storage and offloading vessel for work in Angola. Bumi Armada received a letter of intent from Eni for the award of a contract for the chartering, operation and maintenance of an FPSO. The vessel will be deployed at East Hub Block 15/16 offshore Angola. The LOI allows the company to start engineering and procurement work on the vessel immediately, with a contract effective date of 28 March. First oil is expected for the end of October 2016. Bumi Armada Hassan Basma said this was the company’s second largest FPSO award in six months. “This is the second time Eni has turned to Bumi Armada for an FPSO in West Africa and we will continue to collaborate with our tried and tested value-chain,” he said. “This project is our first VLCC-tanker conversion.” Bumi Armada will convert the Armada Ali to carry out the work, Basma added. “The 15/06 FPSO will be delivered in 31 months and this project will take Bumi Armada’s FPSO fleet to eight, clearly moving us into the top-tier of global FPSO players.” Earlier this year it was announced that Bumi Armada was the front-runner for the contract, although the deal had not been officially finalised. Sources said Bumi had the advantage over its competitor, Saipem, with the company believed to be moving away from the FPSO game. The contract award was originally set to be announced in October but sources said a number of factors delayed the decision-making process.
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 07:11:30 +0000