The floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for the bp-operated Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) liquefied natural gas (LNG) project has started its journey towards the project site off the coasts of Mauritania and Senegal in West Africa.

GTA—a bp-Kosmos partnership—is an offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) project based on upstream gas production in 2.850km-deep waters on the maritime border of Mauritania and Senegal. It is the deepest offshore project in Africa to date.

The FPSO set sail on 20 January 2023 from Qidong, China after successfully completing a series of sea trials following construction over the past three and half years. It will now travel 12,000 nautical miles via Singapore to its final destination—around 40km offshore on the maritime border of the neighboring countries.

Tortue Phase 1 will produce gas from an ultra-deepwater subsea system and mid-water floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. The gas will be transferred to a floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility at an innovative nearshore hub located on the Mauritania and Senegal maritime border. The FLNG facility is designed to provide circa 2.5 million tonnes of LNG per annum of nameplate capacity, with the total gas resources in the field estimated to be around 15 trillion cubic feet.

We are developing one of the world’s most unique and innovative gas projects and the FPSO forms one of the most important components. Achieving the successful sail away of the GTA Phase 1 FPSO is a testimony to the tremendous partnership with our contractors Cosco Shipping and Technip Energies. By working together as one team, we have been able to create a culture of resilience and focus on safe delivery. We have relentlessly focused on safety, quality, and delivery.

—Rahman Rahmanov, bp’s vice president projects for Mauritania & Senegal

The FPSO will process natural gas—removing condensate, water, and other impurities—before exporting it by pipeline to the project’s FLNG facilities, 10km offshore. With eight processing and production modules, the FPSO will process around 500 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.

The majority of the gas will be liquefied by the FLNG facilities, enabling export to international markets, while some is allocated to help meet growing demand in the two host countries. Condensate will be periodically transferred from the FPSO to shuttle tankers for export to market.

The FPSO, which will sit in about 120m of water, will have up to 140 people on board during normal operation and serve as home for the project’s production team. With an area equivalent to two football fields and 10-storeys in height, the FPSO is made of more than 81,000 tonnes of steel, 37,000m of pipe spools and 1.52 million meters of cable.

bp and the governments of Mauritania & Senegal already have a long-standing and wide-ranging cooperation encompassing the GTA project and other potential energy developments. In October 2022, bp announced the signature of an Exploration and Production Sharing Contract for the BirAllah gas resource in Mauritania. Most recently, it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Mauritania to deliver a programme exploring the potential for large-scale production of green hydrogen in the country. In addition, bp continues to work with partners on the development of a major gas to power project in Senegal: Yakaar Teranga.