Page 34: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2001)

Offshore Report activity in the North Sea (see chart 4).

Future equipment orders

Over the next five years, we are pro- jecting orders for an average of 13 to 17 production floaters annually. FPSO ves- sels will clearly be the predominant type (Continued on next page)

Chart 4 ri n ni

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What Type of Floater

Will Be Used? • Offshore West Africa the most likely solution will be use of non- weathervaning FPSOs tied to subsea wells. Purpose-built units will be ordered for big fields such as Rosa, converted hulls for smaller fields.

On very large fields, a spar or TLP will be considered for use as a pro- duction hub, but the local partner will likely push for the least cost up front solution, which leans toward selecting FPSOs with subsea com- pletion. • In the Gulf of Mexico, spars, mini-TLPs or production semis will be the likely production solution on fields where they can be tied to the existing pipeline infrastructure.

Operators in the Gulf like to mini- mize operational cost by utilizing surface trees, a capability of spars, making this production option attractive. Weathervaning FPSO vessels will be a potential solution in the ultra-deepwater central and west- ern areas distant from pipeline infra- structure, with shuttle tankers used to deliver crude to the refineries along the Gulf Coast. • Offshore Brazil, Petrobras will undoubtedly lean toward FPSOs (based on converted hulls) tied to subsea wellhead facilities in order to minimize capex. Existing produc- tion semis will be moved around as fields close, but there will be proba- bly no additional semis acquired, unless a semi hull of opportunity emerges. Oil majors operating off- shore Brazil may be willing to incur the added capex of spars or TLPs to enable use of surface trees in order to minimize well maintenance cost. • FPSO vessels (mostly weather- vaning) will be the likely solution offshore China, Southeast Asia and

Australia. Purpose built units will be selected for large fields with long life expectancy, particularly off

China and Australia. Hulls for off- shore China will likely be local built.

Converted hulls will be more likely to be used off Southeast Asia.

North Sea production units will be mostly weathervaning FPSO vessels (some purpose-built, some based on converted hulls), with a possible

TLP or spar on larger fields. Units now on station will be moved around. ggf ^^ 24'

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