Page 40: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2016)

MARKET INSIGHT: FLOATING PRODUCTION

FPSO Cidade de Marica SBM

Photo: Claudio Paschoa

Unprecedented Idle FPSOs

While the oil and gas markets are starting to come to life, nearing the $50 per barrel mark, the future fate of ? oating production remains a mystery

BY PETER LOVIE he 20 year four-fold growth water in the Netherlands, entered service ? eld often meant working at a seriously pattern in the world’s FPSO at the Fife ? eld in the North Sea under a different water depth in different sea Redeployment can be hazardous to ? eet stalls out in 2016 with a contract with Amerada Hess who were conditions with production and process- your ? nancial health

Trecord number of FPSOs idle the operator of that development. Back ing capabilities being required for a dif- Changes needed for redeployment and available for redeployment – or per- then Dr. Rex Gaisford was development ferent grade of crude oil that usually had have frequently turned out to be trouble- haps to be forced into other uses, lay up director for Amerada Hess in London quite different ratios of gas and water some: dif? cult to manage within budget or scrap. FPSO redeployments typically and an enthusiast of FPSOs in their early present and all at different temperatures and often ran over on time. After Uisge are far more complex, costly and risky days. He eloquently spoke of a world and pressures from the ? rst ? eld. So the Gorm, Bluewater built the Glas Dowr than for (say) drillships and yet the need where FPSOs would move from produc- FPSO usually had to be revamped big FPSO for another development in the for redeploying idle FPSOs is now in the ing one ? eld to later producing at an- time. North Sea, where it worked for not much forefront of the industry like never be- other ? eld. Time and again it turned out that with more than a year before the two ? elds fore as FPSO owners also have to face Worldwide the FPSO ? eet totaled realistic project engineering that the it produced from played out unexpect- the worst ever down market for their about 50 FPSOs in 1995. changes needed for an FPSO at a subse- edly early. Still on contract, it stayed at equipment and services. Subsequent reality did not turn out quent ? eld became many and cost plenty. a dock, warm stacked, for some years quite as Dr. Gaisford forecast but the It was nothing like moving a drill ship until ? nding a subsequent contract off-

Redeployments - The Early Days idea of FPSOs being easy to redeploy from one well location for one operator shore South Africa in 2002. It was good

In 1995 the Uisge Gorm FPSO, de- had taken root. After ? nishing at one to another location for another operator equipment but from my own experience signed and built and operated by Blue- ? eld, the move of an FPSO to the next in another part of the world. as a business developer back then, ? nd- 40 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • JUNE 2016

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