Nexans to Supply Cables for Akpo fieldOffshore Nigeria

Nexans

Nexans has signed a Letter of Intent with Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) to supply offshore cables worth around 7.4 million euros (US $9 million) for the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel of Nigeria's deepwater Akpo field.

1,185 km of power and instrumentation cables
Nexans will supply HHI with a total of 1,185 km of offshore cables (power and instrumentation) for the FPSO. The cables for this project will be produced in accordance with IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) standard. They will meet stringent requirements for fire and flame resistance – providing circuit integrity for a minimum of three hours and able to withstand a flame test at 1,000°C. They will also be halogen free, low smoke and resistant to aliphatic hydrocarbons.

Nexans has previous experience of supplying offshore cables for major projects, such as Sakhalin II for Samsung Heavy Industries in 2003 (Russia) and the Greater Plutonio Project for HHI in 2004 (Angola) among other projects. "Nexans' experience in this sector combined with outstanding technology were the vital factors that enabled us to win the Akpo project." said Michel Lemaire, Executive Vice President North America & Asia Area.

The offshore cables for the Akpo project will be manufactured at Nexans' Jincheon plant in Korea with delivery scheduled from August 2006.

The FPSO vessel of Nigeria's Akpo deepwater field
Akpo, a gas and condensate (light crude) field operated by Total Upstream Nigeria Limited, is due to start flowing in late 2008 and should quickly build up to its plateau output of 225,000 barrels/day of oil equivalent.

The field, lying in water depths from 1,100 to 1,700 meters, will produce to an FPSO vessel with a storage capacity of two million barrels. The field, located around 200 km offshore from Port Harcourt, is located on the Oil Mining License (OML) 130.

Technip's engineering center in Paris (France) is responsible for the overall project management as well as the engineering phase. The FPSO's hull and topside construction and integration will be carried out by HHI, who will engineer and fabricate the various components and structures in Nigeria.


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