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tures will grow signi? cantly over the one in Nigeria called Okwok. I’ve been “I ? nd this interesting. It’s not just the next six to 18 months. Deepwater E&D following it for some time, but I’ve never very big, long life projects, like the ones is a strong leading indicator for ? oating really been optimistic about its prospects in Guyana or Brazil. Now we’re seeing production. If the E&D market is im- as it’s always dif? cult to get ? nancing for smaller ones,” said McCaul. “It brings us proving rapidly, then ? oating production these types of projects. But it looks to me back to the days in the late 1990s, where will follow.” like Okwok could actually move forward loads of small projects involving FPSOs

According to McCaul, “more than two now with the price of oil going up.” were being put into play.” dozen deepwater projects requiring ei- ther an FPSO or production semi look likely to proceed to development by end next year. EPC contracts for the produc- tion units will have an aggregate value of $35 to $40 billion. This is a much higher near-term ordering pace and contract val-

MISSION ue than we anticipated six months ago.”

Explaining the more optimistic outlook,

McCaul says “when we made our ? ve-

POSSIBLE: year forecast of production ? oater orders in November, the virus was spreading

HELICOPTER LANDING fast, a vaccine was not yet available and the global economy was sputtering. Re- bound in the deepwater sector appeared to be 2 to 3 years off -- and our ? ve-year forecast of production ? oater orders was skewed toward the 2023/25 time frame.”

McCaul adds “the early period of our forecast – where we projected only a dozen or so orders in 2021/22 -- is clear- ly looking conservative, given the strong pick-up in activity now being seen.”

Marginal FPSO Projects Come Alive

According to McCaul, an interesting new wrinkle in the market is the appear- ance of small, marginal FPSO projects entering the pipeline.

“This to me is very interesting, and it’s still in the developing stage,” said Mc-

Caul. “I’m not totally clear as to whether these projects are ? rm or not, but there’s been a number of opportunistic, marginal small projects that have come into play that look like they could advance within the next 12 to 18 months.”

He said these projects typically occur when the market is buoyant, when prices of oil are up, and the opportunity is pre- stabilization thru innovation sented to lift and sell oil quickly.

Quantum Marine Stabilizers “The Timor-Leste Buffalo is a very #refueling #crewsafety #rescue small project that looks like it’s going to www.quantumstabilizers.com advance,” said McCaul. “There’s another www.marinelink.com 23

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