Stolt Offshore Wins $75 Million Contract Extension

Stolt Offshore S.A. announced the award of a contract extension from ExxonMobil's Nigerian subsidiary for the fabrication and installation of flowlines on the Erha Drill Centre North Development, offshore Nigeria in a water depth of 1,200 metres. The contract extension with Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, valued at approximately $75 million, is for the engineering, fabrication, installation and pre-commissioning of some 27 kms of flowlines.

The Erha Drill Centre North tiebacks include service for production, water injection and test; and will link Drill Centre North back to the Erha FPSO through infrastucture which will be installed under the existing Erha EPC2 contract.

The Erha field is on OPL 209 in which Esso has a 56.25% operating interest with Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCO) holding the remaining 43.75%. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is the concessionaire of the production-sharing contract for this lease block.

The Stolt Offshore owned Globestar fabrication yard in Warri, Nigeria will fabricate the suction anchors, pipeline double joints and jumpers that will connect the flowlines to the subsea manifolds. Other works to be performed in Nigeria will include: engineering, coating and insulation of pipelines and marine transportation. The engineering work for the Drill Centre North development has already started. Fabrication work will commence during August 2005. Installation of suction anchors, flowlines, umbilicals and associated hardware is scheduled for the second and third quarters of 2006.