SNEPCo Commences Turnaround Maintenance at Bonga FPSO

Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo) has begun a turnaround maintenance programme on the Bonga Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, a move the company says is required to secure the long-term integrity and safe operation of the facility.

The programme, which forms part of a statutory integrity assurance process, is expected to extend the operational life of the FPSO while limiting unplanned production interruptions.

Speaking on the exercise, SNEPCo Managing Director, Ronald Adams, said the maintenance work is structured to keep the facility operating safely and efficiently over the next 15 years. He added that production is expected to resume in March once the turnaround is completed.

Work planned under the turnaround covers a wide range of activities, including statutory inspections and certification, regulatory compliance checks, asset-integrity upgrades, engineering modifications to support future operations, and subsea assurance tasks.

Located about 120 kilometres offshore in water depths of more than 1,000 metres, the Bonga FPSO has the capacity to produce up to 225,000 barrels of oil and 150 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. The continued reliability of the facility is considered important for maintaining steady output and supporting Nigeria’s energy supply and revenue base.

SNEPCo said the timing of the maintenance is particularly significant given recent developments around the Bonga field. In 2024, the company and its partners reached Final Investment Decision on the Bonga North project, a subsea tie-back that will rely on the performance and availability of the existing FPSO. Ensuring the asset is prepared for additional volumes and higher operational demands is therefore a key objective of the turnaround.

Records indicate that Bonga’s most recent turnaround maintenance was completed in October 2022. The following year, on February 1, 2023, the facility recorded a cumulative production milestone of one billion barrels of oil since operations began in 2005.

The Bonga field is operated by Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo) in partnership with Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Deepwater) Limited and Nigerian Agip Exploration Limited, under a Production Sharing Contract with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd).