The Nigerian Naval Dockyard in Lagos has won an order to build the world’s biggest deepwater oil offloading buoy for Shell’s Bonga development. Single Buoy Moorings (UK) Ltd which is executing the main contract for the mooring and installation of Bonga’s Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) system, had farmed out two key sub-contracts to Nigerian firms. The contract for fabrication of 21 foundation piles for the FPSO and the offloading buoy, amounting to 1,200 tonnes of steel, had gone to Nigerian construction firm Robey Dorman Long JV. The 750-tonne Offloading Buoy for Bonga will be fabricated at the Nigerian Naval Dockyard in Victoria Island, Lagos. Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Co Ltd, a unit of Royal Dutch/Shell is developing the $2.4 billion main Bonga field in Nigeria’s new deepsea frontier that is key to the country’s plans to boost its oil production and reserves. The main Bonga field lies in OML 118 and has estimated reserves of some 600 million barrels, and a new Bonga South West field has the same amount of reserves.
