Floating production projects are popping up off Africa, Brazil and Indonesia...and elsewhere.
Offshore operators continue to employ floating production, storage and offloading vessels (FPSOs) in deep water and remote offshore oil and gas fields around the world. This is particularly so where little or no onshore production-handling infrastructure exists nearby.
The summer recently past marked a sizeable flurry of new FPSO announcements. Several will be positioned off West Africa, with another scheduled off Brazil and still another in Southeast Asian waters.
FPSOs are the production-handling mode of choice off Western African nations, most of which have meager onshore facilities, and where operators desire "fast-track" tanker transportation from fields to refineries in Europe and elsewhere.
In June, South Africa's Soekor E&P, operator for partners Pioneer Natural Resources and Petroleum Ltd., signed Bluewater (UK) Ltd. to a 10-year contract to provide floating production facilities for Sable field in the Bredasdorp Basin, about 93 miles (150 km) southwest of Mossel Bay in 330-ft (100-m) waters. The field contains an estimated 20 million to 25 million bbl of recoverable reserves.
Bluewater will deploy the FPSO Glas Dowr to the field and coordinate and support daily production operations from a base to be set up onshore. The FPSO's facilities will be upgraded to process up to 40,000 b/d of oil and reinject up to 80 MMcf/d of gas and 45,000 b/d of water.
In turn, Bluewater contracted Coflexip Stena Offshore International to design and supply subsea production components and related services for the Sable field development. That company also will install Bluewater's three-bundle mooring system for the FPSO.
Bluewater hopes to have the Glas Dowr on location by the fourth quarter of 2002.
West Africa takes FPSO brunt
In August, Houston, Texas-based Vaalco Energy, as operator for a five-company group, contracted to lease the FPSO Petroleo Nautipa for use at the Etame field offshore Gabon. The FPSO, with a production capacity of 30,000 b/d and storage capacity of 1.1 million bbl, is expected to be on site off Gabon no later than September 2002. The vessel is finishing a contract off Angola and will be taken to a West African shipyard for maintenance and upgrading.
Also in August, Exxon Mobil announced it will develop its US $3 billion Kizomba A deepwater project in Block 15 off Angola, combining a surface wellhead platform and subsea production system tied back to what will be the world's largest FPSO, with 2.2 million-bbl storage capacity. The FPSO will be built at Hyundai shipyard in South Korea.
Kizomba A will develop the Hungo and Chocalho discoveries in water depths of 3,300 ft to 4,200ft (1,006 m to 1,280m). Target production of 250,000 b/d is planned for this, the first phase of a multiphase program in the same block off Angola, with ultimate production ramped up to 580,000 b/d by mid-decade.
The next-phase Kizomba B project is scheduled to produce up to 250,000 b/d at peak, with first oil expected in 2005. A smaller field, Xikomba, with an estimated production rate of 80,000 b/d, also will be added in the next year or two. Meanwhile, ExxonMobil expects Kizomba A to deliver first oil to the FPSO in late 2004. The three fields would take Block 15 recoverable reserves to more than 3.5 billion boe, said ExxonMobil.
ExxonMobil also is a partner with operator TotalFinaElf in the Girassol field, another deepwater giant, with estimated recoverable reserves of 700 million bbl. A new-build FPSO, with storage capacity of 2 million b/d and production-handling facilities for up to 200,000 b/d, was delivered to that field recently from South Korea to process, store and offload production to shuttle tankers from 23 producers, 14 water injectors and three gas injectors, all subsea.
Across the South Atlantic, in Brazilian waters, the United Kingdom's Enterprise Oil contracted Modec International LLC to provide an FPSO and related equipment for its Bijupira and Salema fields in the Campos Basin, about 175 miles (324 km) off Rio de Janeiro. Water depths range from 1,575 ft to 2,900 ft (480 m to 884 m). The $290 million contract includes the FPSO, flow lines and risers. Modec International is a joint venture of FMC Technologies of Houston and Modec Inc. of Tokyo.
The FPSO will be capable of processing up to 70,000 b/d of oil, as well as handling up to 75 MMcf/d of gas. Storage capacity will be 1.2 million bbl, with water injection facilities capable of handling up to 92,000 b/d. First oil to the FPSO is scheduled for mid-2003.
New FPSO has LNG capability
Meanwhile, in September, Conoco awarded the $587 million FPSO contract for its $1 billion Belanak gas development off Indonesia to a unit of Brown & Root, Houston. The development is about 125 miles (232 km) from Singapore.
The Belanak development will feature the FPSO, to be equipped with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) extraction facilities, and two wellhead platforms, a gas export pipeline to Singapore and intrafield pipelines.
The FPSO will be capable of processing up to 350 MMcf/d of gas, 100,000 boe/d and 23,000 b/d of LPG. The 1,000-ft (305-m) vessel will be capable of storing up to 1 million bbl of oil. First oil is scheduled for late 2004.
Finally, in August, Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) said its FPSO Petrojarl I began processing first oil from Statoil's 25 million-bbl Glitne field in the Norwegian North Sea. That contract, the vessel's tenth, is slated to last about 30 months.
The Petrojarl I, built in Japan in 1986, recently was upgraded to extend its service life another 15 years, PGS said. At Glitne, it will process about 38,000 b/d to 40,000 b/d of oil at peak production.

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