Page 9: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 2012)

December 2012www.marinelink.com 9Traditional shipyards in Singapore are benefitting from booming oil and gas business, as work orders flow in for Floating Production Storage and Of- floading (FPSO) and Floating Storage and Of-floading (FSO) conversions, that?s according to a new report by GBI Research. The new report ? Floating Production Storageand Offloading (FPSO) and Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) Industry to 2017 ? cites Singa- pore as the location of around 70% of conversions for the FPSO industry globally, with traditional shipyards such as Keppel, Sembawang, Jurong, and ST Marine fully equipped and responding to sub-stantial demand for FPSO conversions, in addition to the regular ship repair work orders. In July 23, 2012, Keppel shipyard won three con- version contracts worth $82m from Petro Vietnam Technical Services (PTSC) Asia-Pacific Pte Lim- ited, Perenco Group, and BC Petroleum. PTSChave contracted the shipyard to convert a tanker into a FPSO unit, to be deployed in the Thang Long and Dong Do oil fields in the Cuu Long Basin off- shore of Vietnam, with a scheduled completion date of late 2013. The contract with Perenco in- volves the conversion of a tanker into an FSO unit to be deployed in the Lucina field offshore of Gabon in 2013, and the contract with BC Petro-leum involves the conversion of a tanker into an Early Production Vessel (EPV) to be deployed in the Balai Cluster oil fields in offshore Malaysia. Keppel is already engaged in six FPSO and FSO contracts, and these new projects will work to fur- ther improve the yard?s impressive reputation. Conversion of a single hulled tanker into a FPSO unit costs around 10% of the cost of building a brand new unit, as costs and time needed for engi- neering, construction, outfitting and commission- ing are a great deal reduced, materials and basicstructural design already being present. The ?fast- track conversion? is very popular, taking under a year to complete, enabling firms to bring high-pri- ority offshore reserves to production in previously unheard of timescales.However, FPSOs and FSOs deteriorate more rap- idly than fixed platform structures, and their tech- nical complexity require regular maintenance procedures to ensure smooth-running operations.Over 35 FPSOs worldwide are approaching the middle or end of their design life, and the limitednumbers of onboard personnel able to performmaintenance operations affects the upkeep of these aging vessels. Cost effective integrity programs are therefore urgently needed in order to increase the functional life of these assets.Shipyard Boom (yes, a shipyard boom) Singapore Yards Capitalize on FPSOs Energy Efficiency for Military Ops Eco Marine Power Co. Ltd. (EMP) released details of its modified version of the Aquarius MRE Sys- tem for use on naval and coast guard ships. This modified system will use EMP?s patent pending Ener- gySail technology to form an array of devices able to harness renewable energy on these types of ships. http://www.ecomarinepower.com/en/energysail MR#12 (1-9):MR Template 12/4/2012 4:06 PM Page 9