HAMBURG: August 28, 2018. Outsize and project cargo specialist Hansa Heavy Lift has carried over 3,500 tonnes of oil-related equipment from the UK North Sea port of Newcastle to Lagos, Nigeria for delivery to the Egina Oil Field.

Discovered in 2003 and operated by French oil major Total, the field is located at a depth of 1,400 to 1,700 metres some 200 kilometers offshore Port Harcourt. Drilling began in December 2014 and production is expected to begin later this year.

The project is based on a subsea production system connected to a floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) designed to hold 2.3 million barrels of oil (right). Weighing close to 220,000 tonnes and measuring 330 meters long by 60 meters wide, the Egina FPSO is the largest ever built by Total.

Once construction work is complete, it will connect to 44 subsea wells 1,600 meters deep to produce 200,000 barrels of oil per day – 10 percent of Nigeria’s oil output.

As part of the project HHL used its super heavylift vessel HHL Lagos to carry a 2,200-tonne carousel and eight reels used to lay undersea pipe and umbilical cable for the offshore oil industry. When fully wound, the carousel can store up to 120 kilometres of cable for connecting land to offshore rigs and wellheads.

Italian oil and gas contractor Saipem installed the empty carousel on the vessel in Rotterdam prior to the Newcastle call and managed the subsequent unspooling in Lagos.