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in these conversion and integration proj- One of the greatest fears at Petrobras doubling Brazilian oil and gas produc- greatly increase the technical expertise ects, Rocha believes that delays will di- and within the higher spheres of the tion to 5.2 million barrel/day by 2020 and experience of the local workforce, minish with increased experience of the Brazilian government are delays in the and tripling the production by 2030. consequently decreasing delivery times, yards and their workers. If the number FPSO deliveries, because these delays “The work related to ship conversion while maintaining high quality and safe- of FPSOs needed for production at the will directly affect the potential for in- and module integration is complex and ty standards, permitting this sector of larger pre-salt plays stands strong, it is creased pre-salt production, which is a highly technical, this large amount of the shipbuilding industry to also become a virtual guarantee that orders for hull key factor in reaching Petrobras’ goal of conversion and integration projects will globally competitive.” said Rocha.

conversions and topside fabrication will continue.

The Libra pre-salt ? eld for example, is expected to need at least 12 FPSOs for its 1,500 sq. km and an unspeci? ed number of wells, which some Petrobras executives believe may be more than 90 wells, including production and injec- tion wells. That is not considering other large ? nds such as Franco and Carcará, which are also massive, with the latter potentially being bigger than Libra, as its 470 meter thick reservoir is almost 50% bigger than Libra’s.

All these ? gures serve to show the im- portance to local shipyards of dominat- ing the techniques and procedures used to convert VLCC hulls into FPSOs and seamlessly fabricate and integrate the topsides in the least amount of time pos- sible. www.marinelink.com 33

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