Total’s Egina floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel has arrived in Lagos for final integration and fabrication.

At 330m long, it is the largest vessel in West Africa, and the first FPSO to berth and be integrated in the region. The historic arrival of the vessel from a South Korean shipyard has been touted as a major achievement for local content in Nigeria.

Located some 130km off the coast of Nigeria at water depths of more than 1.5km, the Egina oil field is one of Total’s most ambitious ultra-deep offshore projects. When operational, Total’s production from this field will increase Nigeria’s daily oil production by 10% (200,000 barrels per day).

Arriving this week, the vessel is now berthed at the privatelyowned West African free zone and logistics hub Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (Ladol), which will undertake the final integration of topside modules manufactured at the free zone.

“With Total’s support, we were able to build the largest shipyard in West Africa in Ladol, proving local content works. Nigeria now has the infrastructure and trained local labour necessary to build and maintain the largest offshore facilities and vessels,” says Ibrahim Aliyu, executive director of MCI, which has invested in the shipyard in Ladol.

He adds: “Facilities like Ladol make it economically attractive for international oil companies (IOCs) to carry out projects locally. As the hub for the region, Nigeria will also offer its neighbouring countries a compelling value proposition, including local regional manufacturing, creating a more stable and prosperous West Africa.”

Ladol has been rapidly expanding over the past 15 years and has established itself as an important logistics base for IOCs.

In an exclusive interview in August, Ladol CEO Amy Jadesimi told GTR about the next phase of Ladol’s development. “Over the next decade we plan to develop the remaining infrastructure in the free zone to support non-oil and gas industrial activity. Our strategic focus is on supporting and attracting manufacturing and engineering businesses that have a multiplier effect on job creation and which use innovation to develop sustainable business models, disrupting current systems that perpetuate poverty,” she said.

As part of this, Ladol wants to attract manufacturing and engineering companies with sustainable business plans and operations to set up in the zone to industrialise West Africa and be part of what she says will be one of the world’s largest growth markets.