Luanda, April 14, 2025 (Lusa) - Work to convert an oil tanker into the future floating production storage and offloading vessel, the FPSO Kaminho, started on Monday in China and the vessel will store almost 1.6 million barrels, the Angolan concessionaire announced.
The National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency (Anpg) said that the Angolan concessionaire and TotalEnergies Angola witnessed the start of this project in Nantong, China, which aims to convert a VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier) class tanker into an FPSO, a floating production, storage and offloading unit.
The document stresses that the Kaminho FPSO will be connected to a subsea network linked to the discoveries of the Cameia and Golfinho fields, with an expected production of around 70,000 barrels of oil per day, confirming the investment figure of around US$6 billion (€5.3 billion), announced on 20 May 2024, with production scheduled to begin in 2028.
The first stages of the work include dismantling parts of the structure, which will be carried out by the CMHI (China Merchants Heavy Industry) shipyard, under the supervision of the main contractor, Saipem.
Anpg's Executive Administrator, Ana Miala, quoted in the note, emphasised the storage capacity of FPSO Kaminho, a structure that "will be a modern vessel, with a very advanced technological component and high quality, health, safety and environmental standards".
With the future FPSO, she said, "production capacity will be strengthened and the strategic vision of guaranteeing the continuity of oil activity in Angola will be consolidated".
For his part, the chairman of Sonangol's Board of Directors, Gaspar Martins, said that the project represents collaboration between state entities and the partners in Block 20/11, and hoped that "this investment will pave the way for new geographies and bring more investment to this new basin".
The managing director of TotalEnergies Angola, Martin Deffontaines, emphasised that "FPSO Kaminho is TotalEnergies’ 7th FPSO in Angola, and that this project uses the latest cutting-edge technology to fit in with the company's low-emission production portfolio".
The Kaminho FPSO will be "fully electric, equipped with the most advanced technology to optimise operations, energy consumption and reduce emissions" and will have an advanced centralised power generation system, variable speed compressors and a system without gas flaring, which contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, and in this system the gas generated by production will be reinjected into the reservoirs, according to the Anpg note.
Block 20/11 is located in the Kwanza Basin, about 150 kilometres southwest of Luanda with water depths varying between 300 and 2,000 metres, and is operated by TotalEnergies Angola, with a 20% stake, in partnership with Petronas Angola E&P LTD (40%) and Sonangol Pesquisa e Produção (20%).
NME/AYLS // AYLS
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