Page 11: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 2014)

www.marinelink.com 11 a regas barge in anticipation of us- ing the unit on a future terminal proj- ect. Wison Nantong will build the hull and handle the unit integration.

Delivery is scheduled in late 2015.

Two other production fl oater contracts appear to have reached an advanced stage of negotiations. Premier is about to con- tract for a leased FPSO for the Catcher fi eld in the U.K. North Sea. Premier has selected the preferred bidder and BWO looks like the winner. Premier also ap- pears to have earmarked Teekay to sup- ply a cylindrical FPSO for the Bream fi eld in the Norwegian North Sea. De- spite the pick-up in orders in early 2014, it still looks like the production fl oater market is in a temporary slow period.

The sector lacks the vibrancy of previ- ous years. Causing the slowdown is a mixture of cost escalation, ineffi ciencies caused by local content barriers, supply chain bottlenecks, oil companies pulling back on upstream investments and better fi nancial returns from shale/tight oil and gas investments. 236 fl oating production projects are in various stages of planning as of begin- ning March. Of these, 57% involve an

FPSO, 15% another type oil/gas produc- tion fl oater, 22% liquefaction or regasifi - cation fl oater and 6% storage/offl oading fl oater. Brazil and Africa are the major locations of fl oating production proj- ects in the visible planning stage. We are tracking 51 projects in Africa, 48 projects in Brazil – 42% of the visible planned fl oating production projects worldwide. In terms of future production fl oater requirements, Brazil is clearly the leader, as several Brazilian projects will require multiple production units (up to 12 FP-

SOs in one project). When these large projects are taken into account, Brazil represents almost 30% of the visible fl oating production system orders in the planning stage.

For this reason the downsized business plan just announced by Petrobras should cause concern in the fl oating production sector. In late February Petrobras said its fi ve-year capital spending plan for 2014/18 would be almost 7% lower than the fi ve year plan announced last year.

The Author

IMA provides market analysis and stra- tegic planning advice in the marine and offshore sectors. Over 40 years we have performed more than 350 business consulting assignments for 170+ clients in 40+ countries. We have assisted nu- merous shipbuilders, ship repair yards and manufacturers in forming a a plan of action to penetrate the offshore mar- ket. Our assignments have included advice on acquiring an FPSO contrac- tor, forming an alliance to bid for large

FPSO contracts, satisfying local content requirements and targeting unmet re- quirements through technology develop- ment.

Tel: 1 202 333 8501 e: [email protected] www.imastudies.com

Planned Projects

Type of Production

System Required (As of March 1, 2014)

Type of No. of

Required Projects

FPSO 134

Other FPS 36

FLNG 30

FSRU 23

FSO 13

Total 236

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