BW Energy has announced the sail away of the BW MaBoMo (formerly Hibiscus Alpha) offshore production facility. The production facility is currently onboard a heavy-lift vessel in transit to the Dussafu license offshore Gabon where it will be installed to produce oil from the Hibiscus and Ruche fields.

The BW MaBoMo is expected to arrive on the field at the end of September for installation and hook-up with first oil planned late in the first quarter of 2023. The Hibiscus / Ruche development is expected to add up to 30,000 barrels per day of gross production once all the initial six horizontal production wells are on stream.

The platform left the Lamprell yard in Dubai on 8 August following completion of the yard scope with some minor outstanding upgrades, which were executed offshore in preparation for the sail away. The conversion project used approximately 1.9 million manhours with zero LTIs. The BW MaBoMo is a former jack-up drilling rig which has been repurposed as an offshore production facility with 12 well slots. It will be connected to the BW Adolo FPSO via a 20 km pipeline. “By repurposing existing oil and gas production assets we extend their economic lifespan, shorten the time to first oil while also significantly reducing the field development investments and CO₂ footprint. We are very pleased to have completed the conversion project with excellent HSE results and only minor adjustments to schedule and budget in a highly challenging environment due to COVID-19, supply chain disturbances, geopolitical tension and commodity inflation,” said Carl K. Arnet, the CEO of BW Energy.