Floating Production Storage and Offloading

A Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSO; also called a "unit" and a "system") is a type of floating tank system used by the offshore oil and gas industry and designed to take all of the oil or gas produced from a nearby platform (s), process it, and store it until the oil or gas can be offloaded onto waiting tankers, or sent through a pipeline.

History

Oil has been produced from offshore locations since the 1950s. Originally, all oil platforms sat on the seabed, but as exploration moved to deeper waters and more distant locations in the 1970s, floating production systems came to be used.

The first oil FPSO was the Shell Castellon, built in Spain in 1977. The first ever conversion of a LNG carrier (Golar LNG owned Moss type LNG carrier) into an LNG floating storage and regasification unit was carried out in 2007 by Keppel shipyard in Singapore.cite news
publisher=Skipsrevyen
url= http://www.skipsrevyen.no/artikler/artikler-1-2006/798.html
title= The world's first LNG Floating Storage and Regasification conversion
accessdate=2008-08-02]

The last few years concepts for LNG FPSOs has also been launched. An LNG FPSO works under the same principles as an Oil FPSO, but it only produces natural gas, condensate and/or LPG, which is stored and offloaded.

Working principles

Oil produced from offshore production platforms can be transported to the mainland either by pipeline or by tanker. When a tanker solution is chosen, it is necessary to accumulate oil in some form of tank such that an oil tanker is not continuously occupied while sufficient oil is produced to fill the tanker.

Often the solution is a decommissioned oil tanker which has been stripped down and equipped with facilities to be connected to a mooring buoy. Oil is accumulated in the FPSO until there is sufficient amount to fill a transport tanker, at which point the transport tanker connects to the stern of the floating storage unit and offloads the oil.

An FPSO has the capability to carry out some form of oil separation process obviating the need for such facilities to be located on an oil platform. Partial separation may still be done on the oil platform to increase the oil capacity of the pipeline(s) to the FPSO.

Advantages

Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessels are particularly effective in remote or deepwater locations where seabed pipelines are not cost effective. FPSOs eliminate the need to lay expensive long-distance pipelines from the oil well to an onshore terminal. They can also be used economically in smaller oil fields which can be exhausted in a few years and do not justify the expense of installing a fixed oil platform. Once the field is depleted, the FPSO can be moved to a new location. In areas of the world subject to cyclones (NW Australia) or icebergs (Canada), some FPSOs are able to release their mooring/riser turret and steam away to safety in an emergency. The turret sinks beneath the waves and can be reconnected later.

pecific types

A Floating Storage and Offloading unit (FSO) is a floating storage device, which is simplified FPSO without the possibility for oil or gas processing. Most FSOs are old single hull supertankers that have been converted. An example of this is the "Knock Nevis", the world's largest ship, which has been converted to an FSO to be used offshore Qatar.

A LNG floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) is a floating storage and regasification system, which receives liquefied natural gas (LNG) from offloading LNG carriers, and the onboard regasification system provides natural gas send-out through flexible risers and pipeline to shore.

Vessels

Records

The world's largest FPSO is the "Kizomba A", with a storage capacity of convert|2.2|Moilbbl|m3. Built at a cost of over US$800 million by Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, Korea, it is operated by Esso Exploration Angola (ExxonMobil). Located in 1200 meters (3,940 ft) of water at Deepwater block 200 statute miles (320 km) offshore in the Atlantic Ocean from Angola, West Africa, it weighs 81,000 tonnes and is 285 meters long, 63 meters wide, and 32 meters high (935 ft by convert|207|ft|m|abbr=on by 105 ft). [http://www.exxonmobileurope.com/Corporate/Newsroom/Publications/TheLamp_3_2005/story2.asp "Production grows in West Africa’s largest deepwater development"] - The Lamp - Volume 86 Number 3 2004 - Exxon Mobil Corporation]

The FPSO in the shallowest water depth of just 13 m is the Armada Perkasa in the Okoro field in Nigeria West Africa for Afren Energy. This spread moored (fixed orientation) vessel uses 100 mm, 150 mm and 200 mm bore DeepFlex non-steel flexible risers in lazy wave formation (with weights and distributed buoyancy) to accommodate the large motion offsets in an environment of extreme waves and currents.

Current FPSOs

Builders

*Acergy [http://www.acergy-group.com]
*Aker Kværner
*Bluewater [http://www.bluewater.com/company.asp] [http://www.bluewater.com/products.asp?refID=254&ID=184&contentID=184]
*BW Offshore [http://www.bwoffshore.com]
*Chicago Bridge & Iron [http://www.cbi.com/services/fpso.aspx]
*Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) [http://www.dsme.co.kr/en/]
*Hyundai Heavy Industries
*KBR
*Keppel Shipyard
*Larsen & Toubro
*Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
*Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding (Mitsui) [http://www.mes.co.jp/english/business/ship/ship_04.html]
*MODEC / SOFEC
*Nexus Floating Production [http://www.nexusfp.no/]
*NORTECHS FPSO [http://www.nortechs.com.sg]
*Oceaneering International Services [http://www.oceaneering.com/index.asp]
*Saipem [http://www.saipem.eni.it]
*SBM Offshore [http://www.sbmoffshore.com]
*Samsung Heavy Industries (Samsung) [http://shi.samsung.co.kr/eng/product/04.asp]
*Sevan Marine [http://www.sevanmarine.com]
*Tanker Pacific [http://www.tanker.com.sg/]
*Technip [http://www.technip.com]
*Vetco Aibel [http://www.vetcoaibel.com]
*Kavin Engineering And Services Private Limited [http://www.kavinengg.com]

References

External links

*
* [http://www.ukooa.co.uk/issues/fpso/ Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Installations] at the United Kingdom Offshore Operators Association
** [http://www.ukooa.co.uk/issues/fpso/faq.cfm FPSO's FAQ's] at the United Kingdom Offshore Operators Association
* [http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/offshore/fpso/fpso.html FPSOs at the U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service - Gulf of Mexico OCS Region]
*FPSO pages at [http://www.offshore-technology.com/ Offshore-Technology]
** [http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/kizomba/ "Kizomba"]
** [http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/glitne/ "Petrojarl 1"]
** [http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/terra_nova/ "Terra Nova"]
** [http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/white_rose/ "White Rose"]
*FPSO pages at [http://www.ship-technology.com/ Ship-Technology]
** [http://www.ship-technology.com/projects/anasuria/ "Anasuria"]
** [http://www.ship-technology.com/projects/bonga/ "Bonga"]
** [http://www.ship-technology.com/projects/ramform/ "Ramform Banff"]
** [http://www.ship-technology.com/projects/searose/ "Searose"]
* [https://portal.mustangeng.com/pls/portal30/docs/FOLDER/MUSTANGENG/INDUSTRY_POSTERS_CONTENT/04FPSO.PDF 2004 worldwide survey of Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Units] Mustang Engineering and BHP Billiton. (Adobe Acrobat *.PDF document)
* [https://portal.mustangeng.com/pls/portal30/docs/FOLDER/MUSTANGENG/INDUSTRY_POSTERS_CONTENT/200708_OFFSHORE_SM.PDF 2007 worldwide survey of Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Units] Mustang Engineering and BHP Billiton. (Adobe Acrobat *.PDF document)
* [http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/features/special/070126_deep_oil/ Deep Oil] a Nightly Business Report special, includes look at Discoverer Deep Seas (an FPSO)