Altera Infrastructure has finalised principal agreements with Eni for the supply of a new floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel to support the Baleine Phase 3 development offshore Côte d'Ivoire. The agreement marks a significant step forward in one of West Africa's most actively developed offshore projects in recent years, with Eni continuing to progress Baleine through successive development phases.
The Baleine field has established itself as a major focus of offshore activity along the West African Atlantic margin. With Phase 3 now advancing to the point of securing an FPSO vessel — the central piece of floating production infrastructure — the project is moving into a more concrete execution stage. Altera Infrastructure, a specialist in floating offshore production solutions, will supply the new-build or converted unit under the terms of the principal agreements reached with Eni.
For the broader Norwegian oil and gas service community, the Baleine Phase 3 FPSO award is a meaningful market signal. FPSO deployments of this nature generate demand across a wide range of upstream service segments, including subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines (SURF), topsides integration, marine services, and well intervention. Côte d'Ivoire's regulatory and commercial environment has demonstrated increasing maturity through Baleine's phased development, and Phase 3 represents a further deepening of Eni's long-term commitment to the country's offshore basin.
Norwegian companies with existing West Africa footprints — particularly those active in subsea installation, FPSO hook-up, and production chemistry — should track this development closely. The finalisation of FPSO supply agreements typically precedes a wave of subcontractor and vendor engagement as engineering, procurement and construction timelines are established. Early positioning with Altera Infrastructure and Eni's supply chain teams would be advisable for firms seeking to participate in Phase 3 execution.
Côte d'Ivoire continues to grow in strategic importance as a frontier-to-producer story in West Africa. Eni's phased development approach at Baleine — moving methodically from early production through to full-field development — provides a relatively predictable procurement horizon compared with more speculative exploration plays elsewhere in the region. Norwegian service companies should view Phase 3 not in isolation but as part of a multi-phase infrastructure buildout that is likely to sustain demand for specialist offshore services over the medium term.