Page 72: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 1996)

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Storage & Power "To Go" (Continued from page 72) within a few years."

As of yet, the concept hasn't had much impact in the Gulf of Mexico on the production side. One reason is that the Gulf already has such an infrastructure of platforms and pipelines in place that there is less need for offshore processing and storage facilities, according to Mr.

McCabe. Another reason is that

Gulf wells tend to require more fre- quent workovers, which aren't fea- sible from tanker-based facilities. "To date, Zafiro Producer, at 268,000 dwt, is by far the largest of the three FPSO conversions to be performed on the Gulf Coast," said

Mr. McCabe. "The Ocean

Producer, which we did, is 78,00C dwt and the Jamestown, converted by McDermott, is also a relatively small unit."

Mobil's timeframe for the field — it wanted production by the third quarter of this year — could not have been met by building a fixed platform, according to Larry Salz,

MEGI's production manager. "At a guess, installing a fixed platform at this location in 600 ft. (182.9 m) of water would have required about three years," said

Mr. Salz. The conversion and mobilization schedule for the

Zafiro Producer is 18 months. "Even with such a platform, we would still have needed additional onshore or floating storage capaci- ty. It was never really an option," he added.

The added bonus afforded by the

FPSO is its mobility, making it possible to move to another site if, or when, field production declines.

The best case scenario for Zafiro

Field, according to Mr. Salz, is for five to ten years of production, con- siderably less than the life expectancy of the FPSO.

Then there is the money. Mr.

Salz estimated that a fixed plat- form at that location might have cost $250 to $300 million, com- pared with $70 million for the con- version and outfitting of the FPSO.

Electric Generating

Plants

Money in a different context — the lack of it — has given rise to another maritime hybrid, the barge-mounted electric generating plant.

There is a growing market for electric power in most Third World countries. But, investors are reluc- tant to risk money on brick-and- mortar projects, such as power- plants, in developing countries.

They tend to take comfort, howev- er, in having their investment on a barge, which can be moved to another location in the event of default or other adverse circum- stance. "The energy demand of develop- ing countries such as India,

Pakistan and much of Latin

America is astronomical," said

Nauman Ahmad, manager of

Finance for Smith Cogeneration of

Oklahoma City.

In 1994, Smith put in place one of the world's first, and at that time largest barge-mounted, combined- cycle (gas and steam fueled) gener- ating plants in the Dominican

Republic. It currently produces 185 MW of electricity. "Access to financing is one of sev- eral factors which make barge- mounted powerplants attractive,

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