KBR Secures Tortue Work

US engineering contractor KBR said October 12 it has been awarded a Feed (front end engineering design) contract by BP for Phase 1 of the Tortue field hub/terminal offshore Senegal/Mauritania.

It includes a mechanism to allow transition of the contract to a full Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management (EPCM) contract at a later date.

KBR will provide management of the Quarters and Utilities (QU) of the Hub/Terminal for the Tortue project on the offshore maritime border between Senegal and Mauritania. The Feed work is to be performed up to end-2018, in support of a final investment decision expected to be taken by BP and key partner Kosmos by then. The value of the contract, not disclosed, will be booked by KBR in its 4Q2018 accounts.

KBR had previously undertaken pre-Feed work on the same northwest African offshore project. The Feed work will be undertaken by KBR's UK affiliate.

A cluster of contracts, subject to FID, were awarded in April/May 2018 by BP to various companies, including Technip, BHGE/McDermott, and Golar LNG. The latter expects to charter a floating liquefaction (FLNG) vessel to the BP-led Tortue project, with capacity to liquefy 2.3-2.5mn metric tons/yr. If the project takes FID this year, it may produce first LNG cargoes in late 2021.

On October 11, KBR announced it had secured work doing the preliminary design for floating production ships for Woodside for its future Browse offshore gas development.