Here’s an un-narrated 3-D view of what an FPSO-developed field looks like, and how it produces hydrocarbons.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Vision and driving ambition of SBM Offshore:

“To be the trusted partner of choice in the development of complete offshore floating solutions for the world’s energy companies – which is underpinned by three core values: Team-Energy (Work as One), Success (Perform) and Ambition (Shape our Future).”

FPSO Espirito Santo, image: SBM Offshore

In SBM’s annual report, they state:

The demand for FPSOs will remain strong over the next five years, with continued strong growth forecast in deepwater worldwide and particularly in Brazil and West Africa.  The disappointing financial performance over last few years of FPSO projects worldwide is an indication that rewards are structurally not aligned with obligations and liabilities of FPSO contractors.

The on-going effects of the debt crisis will impose more stringent bank regulations, with implementation of Basel 3 principles, which will make it more difficult to secure long-term debt through the project financing markets. In order to finance continuing growth in the lease fleet the Company is diversifying its sources of long-term debt by widening its core banking group, by signing a long-term corporation agreement with Mitsubishi Corporation to develop FPSO projects in partnership, and by preparing to access debt markets directly.

Sapinhoá is expected to hold 2.1 billion barrels of oil. (Image: Petrobras)

TOKYO (Dow Jones)–Mitsubishi Corp. (8058.TO) said Monday that it and two other companies have signed contracts to charter and operate a floating production, storage and offloading system for 20 years for Brazil’s state-owned Petróleo Brasileiro SA (PBR), or Petrobras.

Mitsubishi Corp.’s partners are SBM Offshore NV (SBMO.AE), a major global FPSO engineering company, and Queiroz Galvão Óleo e Gás SA, a Brazilian oil and gas developer, Mitsubishi Corp. said in a statement.

Mitsubishi Corp. said it has partnered with SBM since February 2011 to jointly pursue FPSO lease-and-operate projects, and this will be the first such project they have secured together.

Under the terms of deals, the three partners will deliver an FPSO for use in developing the north part of Sapinhoá oil field offshore Brazil in the second half of 2014, with a processing capacity of 150,000 barrels a day crude, Mitsubishi Corp. said.

-By Mari Iwata, Dow Jones Newswires

In a conversation with Sevan Marine CEO Carl Lieungh this morning, he reiterated that this announcement marks the start of a study and few details have yet been sorted out, although this vessel’s capacity will be at or above 1 million barrels, which is somewhat larger than the Goliat FPSO currently under development in the Barents Sea.

“We will be looking at power generation options as well.   The Goliat FPSO, which is currently under development nearby, will be partially powered via land.  We will be looking at using produced gas to power four or possibly five GE LM2500 gas turbine electrical generators, which equates to around 80-100MW of power.”

That’s the same power plant as found on a US Navy cruiser.

“The production riser configuration will also be of a standard flexible-type” he mentioned.

Goliat FPSO, rendering courtesy Statoil

The study will be performed in the period from April 2012 to May 2013 and will be focused on further development of the Sevan FPSO as basis for future preferred concept.

Ingøya island in Masoy municipality, Finnmark, Norway. Image via Wikipedia

The Sevan design developed for offshore installations meets the oil and gas industry’s long standing challenge for versatility, flexibility, and fast deployment. The Sevan design has proved to be an efficient basis for Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) units as well as for deep water Mobile Offshore Drilling Units (MODU). The three Sevan FPSO’s currently installed at their respective locations; FPSO Sevan Piranema in Brazil, and FPSO Sevan Hummingbird and FPSO Sevan Voyageur in the North Sea, have demonstrated to meet these challenges and provide confidence that the Sevan technology will continue to perform successfully also on future developments.

FPSO Sevan Piranema, image courtesy Sevan Marine

The main components of the Sevan FPSO’s and MODU are the cylindrical hull. The FPSOs utilize the hull for cargo storage and segregated ballast tanks as well as for marine and utility systems.

The MODU has mud and drill water storage in the hull as well as cargo and ballast tanks. Pumps and other utility systems related both to the drilling equipment and to the marine systems are located inside the hull. A large moon pool is arranged in the centre of the MODU hull.

The Sevan hull is suitable for operation in water depths ranging from 30m to more than 3,000m and Sevan units may operate in both benign and harsh environments. Model tests have been made for the most extreme North Atlantic conditions as well as for the toughest cyclonic conditions with excellent results.

Main features of the design are:

• Circular hull with symmetry of the design
• High capacity for oil storage and deck loads
• No turret or swivel
• Any number of risers may be carried by the FPSOs
• Excellent motion characteristics
• High safety standards

The symmetry of the design and the simplicity of the structural arrangement make the construction of the hull simple and efficient. No special facilities or infrastructure are required, thus standard shipyard facilities existing worldwide are sufficient to construct Sevan units.

BW Pioneer, image by Petrobras USA

Almost a year after they had planning to start production, oil has finally started to flow from Petrobras’ Cascade Field, 250 kilometers south of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico.  Collecting these hydrocarbons is the BW Pioneer FPSO (a Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading vessel platform), which is literally anchored in water 2,500 meters (over 8000 feet) deep.

This is the first FPSO to produce oil and gas in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and it is capable of processing 80,000 barrels of oil and 500,000 cubic meters of gas per day and of storing 500,000 barrels of oil. The vessel is fitted with a detachable mooring system that allows it to sail to sheltered areas during hurricanes and storms, providing security to both the crew and to the environment as well as preserving equipment.

The Cascade 4 production well was drilled and completed in Lower Tertiary reservoirs (formed between 23 and 65 million years ago), a promising offshore exploration frontier which is  located at a depth of about 8,000 meters in the Gulf of Mexico.

This well is connected to the vessel platform by means of a system composed of subsea equipment and lines, in addition to free-standing risers (vertical production lines). The oil will be transported to land on shuttle tankers, and the gas through pipelines. Petrobras is the first company to develop an oilfield in the Gulf of Mexico using these technologies, which are systematically and successfully applied in Brazil.

Rendering of the P-57 FPSO

RIO DE JANEIRO (Dow Jones)–Brazilian state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR), or Petrobras, is expected to receive up to $7 billion worth of bids to complete eight offshore oil platforms in a tender this week, local business daily Valor Economico reported Monday.

The bids will cover modules and integration for eight floating production, storage and offloading vessels that will be installed at pre-salt fields in the Santos Basin, where a cluster of oil discoveries was made more than four miles under the sea. Brazil has said the deposits could contain 50 billion barrels of oil.

Eight hulls are currently under construction at a shipyard in Rio Grande do Sul state, at a cost of about $3.46 billion. The next contract, valued at between $5 billion and $7 billion, will install and integrate production modules on the hulls, Valor said. The eight FPSOs are clones, numbered P-66 to P-73, designed to cut costs and speed construction. The first platform, the P-66 FPSO, is expected to be completed by November 2013.

The bids are expected to be turned in Tuesday, Valor said.

The FPSOs will be installed at Petrobras-operated fields in the BM-S-9 and BM-S-11 blocks in the Santos Basin. BG Group (BG.LN), Galp Energia (GALP.LB) and Repsol YPF (REP) are also partners in the fields.

Newspaper website: www.valor.com.br

-By Jeff Fick, Dow Jones Newswires

Husky SeaRose FPSO

Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries Ltd (H&W) has been awarded the contract for the drydocking and service of the SeaRose Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel.

The 272-metre long, 46-metre wide SeaRose FPSO is located at the White Rose oil field, 350km off the Newfoundland coast, operated by Husky Oil.

H&W will dedicate its smaller 335m x 50m Belfast Repair Dock and 432m Repair Quay to the project during May and June 2012.   This intense period of activity will be preceded by a dedicated team planning and co-ordinating all activities, starting immediately.   The integrated project team will be made up of owner and H&W personnel along with key contractors and vendors.

”H&W, along with our key contractors, are pleased to have secured the SeaRose FPSO project and to demonstrate the capabilities of the UK Oil & Gas supply chain,” said H&W Project Manager James Lappin.  “This is an important opportunity, not only for H&W but for Northern Ireland, to extend a welcome to our Canadian visitors and demonstrate our world class facilities.”

“We are proud that they have put their trust in us,” H&W Chief Executive Officer Robert J Cooper said.   “All levels of H&W are committed to ensuring this important project is completed safely and successfully.”

Harland and Wolff was founded over 150 years ago in Belfast, Northern Ireland and has built some of the world’s most famous ships, including three from the White Star Line: the Olympic, Titanic, and the Britannic.  In recent years however, their business, like many others in the shipbuilding world, has evolved to include renewable energy projects such as offshore wind farm and tidal turbine construction.

The contracts Rolls-Royce will supply Petrobras with thirty-two RB211 gas turbine power generation packages, including waste-heat recovery units, to meet the power generation requirements of eight separate Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels. The FPSO’s, used for the processing of hydrocarbons and storage of oil, will operate in the petroleum rich Lula (formerly Tupi) and Guara oilfields, located in the pre-salt area of the Santos Basin off the coast of Brazil.

The new gas turbine power generation packages will be delivered in groups of four, with the first units scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2013. Four gas turbine generating sets will be installed on each of the eight FPSO’s.  Rolls-Royce will also provide Petrobras with long-term services, technical support and training.

“We are delighted that Petrobras has again selected Rolls-Royce power generation technology to help meet its aggressive offshore oil and gas production objectives,” said Andrew Heath, President of Rolls-Royce.  “Rolls-Royce has a strong record of equipment and services supply to Brazil’s energy sector and we are committed to supporting all our customers in the country with reliable, technology solutions and a strong localised presence.”

In February Rolls-Royce announced plans for the construction of a new $100 million-plus purpose-built gas turbine assembly and test facility in Santa Cruz in the state of Rio de Janeiro which is expected to become operational in the first quarter of 2013. Equipment from these contract awards, scheduled for installation in the Lula (Tupi) and Guara oilfields, will be among the first units to be assembled and tested at the new Rolls-Royce facility.

The latest contract award increases the number of Rolls-Royce RB211-powered industrial gas turbine units installed in Brazil over the last 10 years to sixty-two. The combined total amount of energy generated by these units is equivalent to 1.8 gigawatts of electric power, enough to supply energy to over seven million people.

We thought this weeks ship photo was pretty cool.  It shows the newly constructed USAN Floating Production Storage and Offloading unit (FPSO) being positioned at the Usan field offshore Nigeria.

Built by Hyundai Heavy Industries, the FPSO Usan is one of the largest units of its kind.  In April, the FPSO left on its 3-month journey under tow from the HHI shipyard Ulsan, South Korea, around the Horn of Africa, and eventually connecting to the tug Fairmount Glacier for final positioning and installation offshore Nigeria.  Nine weeks of continuous heading control later, the unit was successfully installed.

The Usan FPSO has the capacity to refine 160,000 barrels of oil and 5 million cubic meters of gas per day and can store 2 million barrels of oil. The facility is 320m long, 61m wide, 32m high and weighs 116,000 tons.

An illustration of the newbuild Dockwise Vanguard courtesy Dockwise

Life is good when you can tranport over 100,000 metric tons.

Heavy lift operator Dockwise today announced that its new-build “Type-0″ super vessel, Dockwise Vanguard, has been booked for its second project, transporting an FPSO from Korea to Norway.  Directly following the transportation of the Jack & St. Malo platform to the Gulf of Mexico in 2013, the Dockwise Vanguard will return to its roots at Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea to pick up the Goliat FPSO and transport it to the northern coast of Norway.

“The Vanguard is already adding unique capacity and new flexibility to the Dockwise fleet,” said Dockwise CEO, Andre Goedee.  “This is of particular value for clients with the most challenging assignments. In case of today’s announcement we created an opportunity for the client to optimize the project execution schedule with a flexible and robust solution for the transportation of the Goliat FPSO from Korea to Europe. We consider this another strong endorsement of Dockwise’s decision to invest in a major new-build asset ahead of the surge in demand for Transport & Installation projects in the next decade.”

The Dockwise Vanguard is expected to be delivered in late 2012 from Hyundai Heavy Industries.

The Goliat FPSO will be operated by Eni for oil production of the Goliat field located offshore Northern Norway in sub-arctic conditions. The platform is designed as a fully integrated and enclosed winterized floating production platform (FPSO).

As part of the first contract, Keppel Shipyard Ltd. will convert a very large crude carrier into a floating production, storage and offloading, or FPSO, vessel. The contract has been placed by Single Buoy Moorings Inc.

The second contract placed by Rubicon Offshore International Pte. Ltd. involves constructing a module for an FPSO vessel.

-By Chun Han Wong, Dow Jones Newswires