Nautilus Minerals has awarded a $116 million target price contract to Technip USA to provide engineering procurement and construction management (EPCM) services for the Riser and Lifting System (RALS) components of its deepwater seafloor massive sulphide extraction system, comprising subsea pumps, riser pipe, riser handling system and associated deck equipment.
David Heydon, Nautilus’ CEO commented: “With the award in December 2007 of the £33 million Seafloor Mining Tool (SMT) contract to Soil Machine Dynamics together with the $116 million for the RALS, Nautilus’ total capital commitment to date on the mining system is approximately $186 million.
A competitive front end engineering design program is underway to evaluate the SMT and the RALS integration requirements for the various mining production vessels under consideration. This will allow competing mining services contractors to finalise their outstanding tender clarifications. Nautilus proposes to select the vessel and mining services contractor in second quarter 2008. www.technip.com