Catcher FPSO to Add about $200 mln in EBITDA/year

BW Offshore CEO Carl Arnet in FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading) firm BW Offshore Ltd says the Catcher field project in the British North Sea will add about $200 mln in annual EBITDA to its results when it comes on stream in December 2017.

 

** BW Offshore reported an EBITDA of $82.1 million in Q3, beating a $72 million average forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll

 

** CEO says there is more activity among potential customers, but traditional contracts to just operate and lease units have not made sense for BW Offshore at current low rate levels

 

** BW instead prefers project were it can participate in development phase and create long-term relationship with an oil firm

 

** BW is also developing Dussafu field in Gabon. CEO says Dussafu is on time an budget and first oil is targeted in second half of 2018

 

** FPSO unit Cidade de Sao de Mateus, which exploded under operation for Petrobras in February 2015, is still in lay-up at Keppel in Singapore

 

** CEO says its up to Petrobras to decide what will happen to FPSO Cidade de Sao Mateus, but BW needs to have a project before it decides to repair the unit

 

** BW Offshore currently operates 11 units, the owned fleet includes 15 FPSOs and one FSO


(Reporting by Ole Petter Skonnord, editing by Terje Solsvik)