Golar signs up for Ophir’s Fortuna project

London-headquartered Golar LNG will build, operate and maintain a floating gas liquefaction and storage vessel for Ophir Energy’s operations in offshore block R in Equatorial Guinea, the companies announced on Tuesday.

Golar will provide Ophir with the floating LNG (FLNG) vessel Gimi for the international exploration and production company’s Fortuna project. It is scheduled to be brought on stream at Fortuna in the first half of 2019.

The Fortuna field is estimated to contain 36.8 bcm (1.3 tcf) of natural gas reserves.

The Gimi is being converted from the LNG tanker Hilli. The decision for the Gimi FLNG conversion had previously been agreed upon between Golar, Singapore’s Keppel Shipyard and US-headquartered Black and Veatch in December 2014.  The vessel is planned to have an annual LNG production capacity of about 2.2 million tonnes.

Ophir Energy holds an 80-percent operating interest in block R alongside Equatorial Guinea’s national oil company, GEPetrol, with 20 percent.