Mysterious Nigerian buyer pays $20 million to acquire Abo FPSO from BW Offshore

BW Offshore, a Norwegian owner and operator of floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels around the world, has sold its Abo Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel to STAC Marine Offshore, a subsidiary of STAC Group, purpotedly a Nigerian Transport Group, for $20 million.

There is no information available whatsoever about the ownership of STAC or its existence prior to the deal with BW Offshore.

The FPSO, which started as a Suezmax tanker, has operated in the Abo field for two decades, serving Eni’s Nigerian affiliate.

Under the agreement, BW Offshore will maintain a bareboat charter with STAC for up to two months. After this period, STAC assumes full control over the FPSO.

Over the past years, BW Offshore had multiple short-term extensions with Nigerian Agip Exploration for the FPSO. In 2021 and 2022, the firm reported extensions while finalizing the sale.

BW Offshore, which recently sold its Sendje Berge FPSO to Lagos-based Century Group owned by Nigerian tycoon Ken Etete, now operates three FPSOs: the BW Adolo, BW Catcher, and BW Pioneer. A new vessel, the Barossa FPSO, is under construction for deployment with Santos in Australia.

The Abo field, located in OML 125 and OML 134, was Nigeria’s inaugural deepwater production asset, peaking at 37,300 barrels per day in 2020.