Mellitah Oil and Gas to pre-qualify for Basic and FEED
On October 14th, 2012, the joint venture Mellitah Oil and Gas (MOG) between Eni from Italy and the Libyan National Oil Company (NOC) closed the submission period for the pre-qualification of the engineering companies to provide basic design and front end engineering and design (FEED) work for the offshore Structure “A” development and onshore Mellitah complex upgrade.
Eni North Africa and NOC established Melittah Oil and Gas B.V. in 2008 as 50/50 joint venture in merging their respective assets in order to manage and develop the Concessions assigned by Libyan Authorities onshore and offshore.
Mellitah Oil and Gas is the largest producer in Libya with production capacity of 600,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) of crude oil, natural gas and condensate.
In November 2011, Mellitah Oil and Gas managed to re-start natural gas production on the offshore platform of Sabratah.
Ramping up the production, the gas production is directed onshore to the Mellitah central processing facilities before being exported.
Through Mellitah Oil and Gas, Eni which has a long standing historical presence Libya is committed to contribute to the oil and gas production restoration in Libya.
In this perspective, the next step is to increase production capacity offshore and operating performances onshore with this Offshore Structure “A” and Onshore Mellitah Complex upgrade project.
The enquiry published by Mellitah Oil and Gas for pre-qualification covers the two packages: offshore and onshore.
Mellitah NC-41 offshore gas and condensate platform
Offshore, the purpose of the project is to develop the non-associated gas and condensate of the Block NC-41.
The Block NC-41 is located 75 kilometers offshore the Libyan coast by 93 to 145 meters of water depth.
From the conceptual study, the basic design and FEED are expected to propose the Structure “A” with a capacity of 160 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) to:
- Operate subsea wells by 96 meters water depth with associated flowlines
- Treat the non-associated gas and condensate through topsides facilities for the separation and dehydration
- Export the natural gas and partially treated condensate through dedicated sealines to shore
- Connect inlet sealines to the existing Mellitah central processing facility for final treatment and export
- Host the living quarters
- Support helideck and utilities
On this offshore package, the FEED work covers:
- Engineering documents to organize the call for tender of the engineering, procurement, installation and construction (EPIC) contract
- Costs estimates
- Time schedule
Upgrade Wafa and Mellitah plants into Mellitah complex
Onshore, the basic design and FEED work is to upgrade and expand capacity of the existing Mellitah complex located 22 kilometers east of the Zwara City.
Actually the Mellitah complex is providing:
- Crude oil processing facilities
- Natural gas treatment unit
- Storage tanks
- LPG
- Sulfur handling facilities
- Utilities including gas and steam turbines for power generation
The Mellitah complex is made of two plants: the Wafa Coastal Plant and the Mellitah Plant.
The Wafa Coastal Plant processes the crude oil and condensate coming from the Wafa field through two trains of 76,300 b/d total capacity
The Mellitah Plant treats the natural gas and condensate coming actually to the re-started Sabratah offshore platform with:
- Three gas trains of 695 million cf/d capacity
- Two NGL trains of 31,000 b/d capacity
- Sulfur handling of 450 t capacities
In addition to the revamping of the existing facilities of the Mellitah complex, the onshore package also include the addition of two treatment trains in respect with the new offshore structure “A” and reach the producing capacity of 12 billion standard cubic meter per year (1.2 billion cf/d) of natural gas.
On the onshore package, the FEED work includes:
- Preparation plan to minimize shutdown
- Debottlenecking existing units
- Licensing Agreements for the Sulfur Removal Unit (SRU), Gas Dehydration, Gas Sweetening, LPG Dehydration, Mercaplan removal
- All documents for the Call for Tender of the EPIC contract.
While the Waha Oil Partners, ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil, Hess and NOC revive the Onshore Sirte Basin, Eni, through Mellitah Oil and Gas, is moving forward to restore and increase production from the offshore Sabratah and Block NC-41.
