The first shipment of pipes for the Liza field to be loaded directly from the Saipem shore base facility, sitting on the eastern bank of the Demerara River in Georgetown, took place over the weekend, marking a significant step forward for the company’s operations in the South American country.
The 3,252-ton Skandi Foula supply vessel arrived at the Saipem port on Saturday morning for its first load of pipes from the newly completed facility. Previous shipments of pipes for the Liza field were facilitated at another port.
Guyanese shipping company John Fernandes Ltd. has been working closely with the Liza Phase 1 prime contractor to get the facility ready and according to Thuranthiran Nadarajah, Saipem’s Country Manager, this was achieved using 100% Guyanese manpower and support services.
“Everything is local. Whatever you see here in the base its all local. Everything was done by local people,” he told OilNOW during a site visit on Saturday.
John Fernandes, he said, took all the steps to prepare the jetty to Saipem’s specifications. “Our requirement was to have a jetty that can load the pipes. John Fernandes has taken the challenge and for the past month they have worked very hard and very late to complete the job.”
Nadarajah said in total, around 100 Guyanese have been working on the project with John Fernandes Ltd. All the sand, stone and building material for the facility, which houses over 6,000 pipes and other supplies for the Liza Phase 1 Development project, were procured in the South American country. “Every time we do an activity, we have about 60 to 100 people,” he stated.
Saipem announced on August 21, 2018 that it had secured contracts for the second phase of the Liza development to the tune of 700 million USD. These contracts, assigned by Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), an affiliate of ExxonMobil, as the project operator, are in addition to those awarded to Saipem in 2017 for Liza Phase 1.
On April 5 the Saipem FDS 2 vessel lowered the first pipe to the seabed at the Liza field in preparation for oil production, set to begin by 2020.
