Shell Gabon Oil & Gas Processing Facilities Expansion - EPC

Historic Project: Groundbreaking Work From Earlier in Fluor’s History

Client: Shell Gabon S.A.

Location: Gabon

Business Segment: Energy Solutions

Industry: Fuels

Map showing the location of Shell Gabon Oil & Gas Processing Facilities Expansion - EPC

Executive Summary

Fluor performed a feasibility study for Shell Gabon S.A. and was then awarded a contract for engineering, procurement and construction management services for the expansion of the oil and gas processing facilities in Gabon.

Client's Challenge

Shell Gabon S.A. is an equity venture comprising Shell, Elf and Amerada Hess, with Shell as the operators of the facility.

The goal of the project in Gabon was to maximize oil recovery from the Rabi field by expanding the existing facilities in three phases.

Fluor's Solution

As part of a general services agreement, Fluor was awarded the project for expansion of the Rabi Field Oil and Gas Processing facility in Gabon. We first performed a feasibility study.

The Fluor and Shell integrated management team developed an execution approach with the objective that the expansion be carried out safely with minimum impact on existing production.

Due to the facility's remote location in the environmentally sensitive Gabon rain forest, the project team proposed the expansion of the existing site and developed a construction strategy that allowed for module yard fabrication to perform much of the precommissioning and testing offsite, reducing the number of people and amount of time spent at the facility.

The first phase of the project called for a field integrity upgrade while the second phase increased capacity to 275,000 barrels per day (BPD) by debottlenecking and adding new manifolds and pumping facilities.

At completion, the central station included additional crude dehydration facilities, with water injection and utilities in addition to a new power plant. The final stage of the project doubled the number of wells and increased capacity to 345,000 BPD.

Conclusion

Fluor and Shell Gabon S.A. worked together as an integrated team throughout engineering and design to minimize the impact on existing production and to ensure that all activities were achieved with due respect to the health, safety and environmental aspects of the project.

As a result of the collaboration, we implemented a modular construction approach with most of the modules fabricated and tested in Europe prior to shipment to the site in Gabon.

The approach reduced the number of people required on the site and reduced the amount of time spent at the facility.