Royal Dutch Shell is in the market for 14 offshore field support vessels to support operations in its Nigerian shallow-water assets including the Bonga oilfield for a period of five years.
This significant contract in Nigeria would involve the supply of at least 14 vessels for Shell’s offshore fields such as EA and Bonga as well as new schemes such as HI and HA in shallow water and Bonga South West/Aparo in deep water.
According to data sourced from Nigerian Petroleum Exchange (Nipex), an electronic centre, which provides details about procurement in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, Shell Petroleum Development Company has initiated the bidding process by making a prequalification call to interested offshore vessel owners to submit bids by October 25 2021.
The tender document also showed the proposed contract, which is on a call-off basis, is due to start in the second quarter of 2022 and run for five years with an option to extend by a further two years.
Shell divided the tender into two work scopes. For the shallow-water operations, an anchor handler, with an 85 to 100-tonne bollard pull, is required for 24-hour operations.
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“Shell will only consider vessels up to five years old and with a minimum deck area of 200 square metres,” the tender document said.
On a call-off basis, Shell says it will require an extra anchor handler, a platform supply vessel, a fast support intervention vessel, a crew transfer vessel, a dive support vessel and an accommodation vessel/flotel with walk-to-work capability.
The call for vessels at Bonga is the same as for shallow-water assets, taking the number of vessels required to up to 14 over the contract lifetimes. Shell said it will also need specialist marine services on a call-off basis as well as the provision of marine personnel.
The tender document showed a number of other vessels are also needed to be accessed on a call-off basis, these include an extra anchor handling vessel, a platform supply vessel, a fast support intervention vessel, a personnel carrier, a dive support vessel and an accommodation vessel/flotel with walk-to work (W2W) capability.
In this scenario, W2W means workers can walk between the flotel and the platforms of floating production, storage and offloading vessels by means of a gangway or a temporary bridge.
Also, specialist marine services will also be needed on a call-off basis (related to — for instance — autonomous underwater vehicles) as well as the provision of marine personnel.
Earlier in the year, Shell announced it was launching a major divestment of its Nigerian assets, especially those in the shallow-water and onshore, in a deal that may end up being one of biggest in Africa’s oil and gas history.
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