BW Inks Pact with Chinese Bank
BW Offshore, operator of 16 floating production ships (FPSOs), has signed a cooperation agreement with leasing firm ICBC Financial Leasing Co, part of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. It will impact a UK North Sea oil and gas project and may bear on a Namibian offshore gas project.
The two parties plan to jointly pursue large international infrastructure projects with a focus on floating production, storage and offloading units, BW Offshore said April 7.
The first joint project as part of the cooperation agreement, subject to both parties' final approval, is ICBC's equity participation in the BW Catcher FPSO through the subscription of preference shares. The FPSO, a $1.2bn investment, will operate on the Catcher field in the UK North Sea with start-up towards the end of 2017, BW said.
The two entities will further establish a cooperation to explore the Kudu-gas-to-power infrastructure project offshore Namibia (see flag below).
In February, BW entered into a farm-out agreement for a 56% stake of the Kudu licence offshore Namibia. which it is to operate. Namibia state-owned oil company Namcor retains the remaining 44% of the license. BW envisages that an FPSO would produce gas offshore, which could be sent via a new subsea pipeline to shore for use at a planned 885 MW gas-fired power plant onshore. It said earlier this year a final investment decision could be taken in 4Q2017.
Previous plans to develop the 1.33 trillion ft3 Kudu gas field have come and gone, but BW said two months ago that lower development costs may now provide a breakthrough.
Shardul Sharma