Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (HHI) announced that a Letter of Award (LOA) has been received from Elf Petroleum Nigeria, Ltd. (EPNL), a Nigerian subsidiary of French oil company Total S.A., to build a super-large Floating, Production, Storage, and Offloading unit (FPSO). The FPSO contract is worth US $1.6 billion.

The FPSO will measure 320m in length, 61m in width, 32m in depth, and weigh 114,000 tons. It will be able to produce 160,000 barrels of oil and 5 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, and will be able to store 2 million barrels of oil.

The FPSO will be completed by the end of 2011. It will be located in the Usan field, which is in water 750 meters deep, 100 km southeast of Bonny Island in Nigeria.

HHI will carry out all phases of the project on a turnkey basis, from the engineering, procurement, and construction, to the test runs.

“The FPSO is a high value-added facility that requires advanced technology in the engineering, construction, and installation of its precision instruments,” said an HHI representative.

HHI has successfully completed at least one super-large FPSO every year since 1997, including the Kizomba A and B FPSOs for ExxonMobil, the Plutonio FPSO for BP, and the Akpo FPSO for Total.

HHI has received five consecutive orders from Total since 2005, when it won the first AKPO FPSO order. HHI's Offshore & Engineering Division is now in negotiations for further projects in West Africa and the North Sea.