The Energean Power hull has undocked from the COSCO shipyard, in Zhoushan, China, and floated out.
The hull for the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is due to sail away from China in the last quarter of the year. Energean said construction had been completed ahead of time and there had been no lost time incidents during the 3 million man hours, as directed by TechnipFMC.
More construction will take place at the yard. This will be followed by integration of the topsides in the fourth quarter, which will be carried out in Sembcorp Marine’s Admiralty Yard, in Singapore. The keel was laid in April.
The FPSO will be used to develop the Karish project, which is due to reach first gas in the March 2021. The FPSO will have capacity of 8 billion cubic metres per year.
Energean reached a final investment decision (FID) on Karish and Tanin in March 2018, with a price tag of $1.6bn. Energean has a 70% stake in the project while Kerogen Capital has the remaining 30%. Gas sales agreements for around 4.2 bcm of gas have been reached with Israeli power producers and industrial companies, running for 16 years.
Two development wells have been drilled this year, with a third due in the fourth quarter. These three wells will be sufficient to cover the Israeli contracted sales.
A 90 km pipeline will run from the FPSO to the Israeli coast, with onshore facilities providing a connection to the domestic gas grid.
Gas from Karish will go supplying Israel and Cyprus. Energean set out a plan in May for a pipeline to Vassiliko, in Cyprus, noting at the time that it has also signed a preliminary deal on the supply of gas with PEC Power Energy Cyprus. Assuming Cyprus approves of the plan, the island could begin receiving gas when Karish starts up.
Energean has made further discoveries in the area, with the Karish North discovery potentially holding up to 42 bcm. This discovery was made 4.5 km from the FPSO site and the company has said development plans would involve a tie-back.