BRVS

Born out of the need for an alternate oil export option for the OML 40 production during the ~336-day shutdown of the Forcados Oil Terminal between 2016 and 2017. Elcrest adopted barging as an alternative option via the Benin River Valve Station (BRVS).

A tie-in point was created on the 16-inch 36KM Opuama-Otumara delivery line at the BRVS to serve as an evacuation point for Opuama processed crude during the prolonged FOT outage. A mooring system was installed at the BRVS, and crude was transported from the pipeline tie-in point onto a storage vessel (The Hinge) and transferred via STS operations to a shuttle barge (Mayfair vessel) which then sailed through Nana Creek to an FPSO (Trinity Sprit) on the Atlantic Coast. The first shipment via BRVS tie-in point commenced on the 22^nd of January 2017 and ceased on the 25^th of May 2017 after the resumption of operations at the FOT.

In 2019, at the start of development operations in Gbetiokun Field, the BRVS was modified to an injection point for crude export for the newly developed field. Processed crude from Gbetiokun is transported via shuttle barges from the storage vessel stationed at Gbetiokun and injected into the Opuama- Otumara delivery line at the BRVS.

The BRVS is designed in such a way that shuttle vessels can safely moor either at the mooring dolphins or at the breasting dolphins to offload crude into the delivery line onward to Forcados Oil Terminal. The infrastructural requirement for the crude oil injection into the Opuama-Otumara line also involves the use of high-capacity injection pumps that take suction from each shuttle vessel.

The BRVS is now also utilized as an injection hub for 3^rd Party Injectors operating stranded fields within the Western Niger Delta in addition to the evacuation of Gbetiokun production.