BHP Billiton Petróleo Operaciones de México, S. De R.L. De C.V. (BHP) has awarded McDermott International Inc. a sizeable contract on March 30 to provide pre-FEED services for a floating production unit (FPU) that will be installed in a water depth of approximately 8,200 ft (2,500 m) at the Trion field, located approximately 19 miles (30 km) south of the U.S./Mexico border and approximately 112 miles (180 km) from the Mexican coastline.

The pre-FEED scope includes engineering tasks related to the configuration, sizing and preliminary analysis of the FPU, including topsides, hull, risers and mooring.

McDermott will work in partnership with Houston Offshore Engineering (HOE) and Wood on the pre-FEED, with McDermott’s Houston office leading engineering services—supported by its Mexico City office—and HOE and Wood providing engineering for the hull and topsides, respectively. McDermott will perform project management, execution planning and estimation services. Installation studies will be performed by McDermott’s marine operations and technical support for fabrication and integration planning will be handled by McDermott’s Mexico-based Altamira Fabrication Yard.

McDermott is currently delivering the subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines, transportation and installation, pre-commissioning of one jacket and topsides for the BHP Ruby Project, located offshore Trinidad and Tobago. It is also providing FEED activities for an FPU for the Scarborough field gas development in Western Australia, of which BHP is a partner with Woodside.

The project will begin immediately with completion projected in the third quarter of 2020. The contract award will be reflected in McDermott's first-quarter 2020 backlog.

McDermott defines a sizeable contract as between $1 million and $50 million.

Offshore