Altera Infrastructure will supply the floating production, storage and offloading vessel for Phase 3 of Eni's Baleine development offshore Côte d'Ivoire, according to a report carried by Yahoo Finance.

The award extends a contractor relationship that already underpins the Baleine project's producing phases in the Ivorian sector of the Gulf of Guinea. Eni operates Baleine, the country's first — and so far only — deepwater oil and gas development, on behalf of the state and its partner PETROCI.

Details disclosed in the initial report were limited to the contract award itself. The headline confirmation — Altera as FPSO supplier for Phase 3 — establishes the vessel provider for the next increment of capacity at West Africa's most closely watched new deepwater hub.

What does the award signal for Baleine's expansion?

A Phase 3 FPSO contract indicates operator Eni is advancing the third development stage beyond appraisal and conceptual work into execution planning. Under industry convention, an FPSO supply award at this stage typically covers conversion or newbuild scope, mooring, topsides processing, and storage capacity sized to the phase's expected production plateau.

Neither Altera nor Eni disclosed vessel specifications, contract value, delivery timing, or the FPSO's planned production capacity in the report as carried. Watch for those figures in follow-on statements from the companies.

Why the vessel choice matters for the basin

Baleine sits in blocks CI-101 and CI-802 in the Ivorian Basin, where Eni discovered the field in 2021 and brought first oil from Phase 1 in August 2023 aboard the FPSO Baleine. Phase 2 followed, lifting output from the 150,000-bpd plateau set by the initial development stages.

Each Baleine phase has rested on floating production capacity contracted to serve a specific increment of the field's overall resource. The Phase 3 award to Altera continues that phased build-out model, which has allowed Eni to match vessel capacity to reservoir performance well by well and stage by stage.

For Côte d'Ivoire, an additional production unit at Baleine points toward a further step-up in national crude output, which the government has anchored to the project since first oil. Any increment also feeds the associated gas system that Baleine supplies to domestic power generation.

Who is Altera Infrastructure?

Altera Infrastructure operates a fleet of FPSOs, shuttle tankers and other offshore infrastructure assets, and has built its business on long-cycle charter contracts with majors and national oil companies. The company has previously worked deepwater West African acreage, a region where FPSO-led development remains the standard configuration for standalone and hub projects alike.

An FPSO award in the Ivorian Basin adds to the regional orderbook for floating production units across the Gulf of Guinea, where operators continue to sanction phased developments rather than fixed platforms in water depths beyond conventional jacket economics.

What comes next?

The watch items from here:

• Formal contract confirmation and value disclosure from Altera and Eni
• The FPSO's planned processing capacity, storage tonnage, and conversion versus newbuild basis
• Target first-oil timing for Phase 3
• Any incremental production guidance Eni issues for Baleine's overall plateau

Until Eni and Altera publish technical and schedule details, the Phase 3 capacity figure and startup window remain open questions for a project that has moved from discovery to multi-phase production faster than any other deepwater development in the region.