Eni, in partnership with PetroCi, celebrated the sail away of the Firenze floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel to the Baleine field offshore Côte d’Ivoire in Dubai. The largest hydrocarbon discovery in the country was made at Baleine.
The celebration was held in Dubai at an event attended by Mamadou Sangafowa-Coulibaly, Minister of Mines, Petroleum and Energy Côte of d’Ivoire, and other dignitaries.
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The FPSO Firenze will allow production start-up of the Baleine field, which is the largest hydrocarbon discovery in Côte d’Ivoire to date, with an estimated oil in place of 2.5 billion barrels and 3.3 trillion cubic feet of associated gas. The development of Baleine will also be Africa’s first net-zero emission project (Scope 1 and 2), Eni said.
The FPSO Firenze, that will be renamed Baleine after its arrival in Cote d’Ivoire, has been refurbished and upgraded in order to allow it to treat up to 15,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil and around 25 million cubic feet per day (mcfd) of associated gas. The entire gas production will be delivered onshore via a newly built export pipeline. The installation of the subsea production system and well completion campaign are underway and will ensure an accelerated start-up of production by June 2023.
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Eni said its phased development model and fast track have proven to be effective, as the project is set to start production less than 2 years from the Baleine 1X discovery well and one and a half years after the final investment decision (FID). Eni is already progressing swiftly on the second phase of the project forecasting a start-up of production by December 2024 after having taken the FID in December 2022.
The Baleine field extends over blocks CI-101 and CI-802. Eni also owns interests in four other blocks in the Ivorian deep water: CI-205, CI-501, CI-401, and CI-801, all with the same partner, PetroCi Holding.
