The Turritella joint venture led by SBM Offshore has completed the project financing of FPSO Turritella for a total of US$800 million, the company said in its press release.
Project financing was secured by a consortium of twelve international banks with an average cost of debt of 3.5% over the ten year post-completion maturity.
FPSO Turritella is owned and operated by a joint venture owned by affiliated companies of SBM Offshore (55%), Mitsubishi Corporation (30%) and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (15%). The vessel is a typical Generation 2 design with a processing capacity of up to 60,000 barrels of oil per day and 15 mmscf/d of gas treatment and export. No water injection facilities are specified, and the Suezmax hull will be able to store 800,000 barrels of crude oil with total topside weight reaching seven thousand tons.
The joint venture will own and operate the vessel for an initial contract period of 10 years with future extension options up to a total of 20 years for Shell Offshore Inc. FPSO Turritella will be deployed on the Stones development project in the Gulf of Mexico, which is located in 2,896 meters (9,500 feet) of water approximately 320 kilometres (200 miles) offshore Louisiana in the Walker Ridge area. When installed, Turritella will be the deepest FPSO development in the world.
Combined with the US$1.55 billion project financing of FPSO Cidade de Saquarema (July 2015), today’s announcement culminates the successful financing of US$2.35 billion for two FPSOs during 2015. Project financing has now been secured on all finance lease projects currently under construction.