Page 22: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2026)

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MARKETS EXPLORATION © Yinson Production the primary commercial driver. The merger of FMC Tech-

Designing for Late-Life Operations Ofers Long- nologies, a subsea production specialist, with Technip, a

Term Opex Savings leading SURF contractor, was key in enabling the iEPCI

With late-life operations come integrity challenges, model. The proposed merger of Saipem and Subsea7 will equipment reliability concerns and processing constraints. also be looking to deliver integrated solutions.

As the onstream batch of global deepwater projects mature – over 30 deepwater assets have been producing for over

Emissions Reductions Now Embedded in 25 years – life extension has become increasingly central to

New Projects operator strategies. Designing for late life is now critical for

New developments are now being assessed through a long-term opex reduction, especially as decisions made at carbon lens as part of project screening, with emissions the early stages of a development will adversely impact the reductions built in, not just bolted on. However, while cost of operating an asset across its full lifecycle. But the deepwater production can offer some of the lowest-carbon recent trend has focused on disciplined capital spending, barrels in an operator’s portfolio, commercial viability re- fast track and standardisation.

mains a challenge.

However, with the growing comfort of new technology,

In the ultra-deep water of Brazil’s Santos Basin, the especially digitisation and artifcial intelligence (AI), IOCs

Equinor-operated Bacalhau FPSO is the frst to feature are looking at adoption of technologies like digital twins combined-cycle gas turbines. The technology generates for real-time monitoring to enable early risk identifcation. more power using the same amount of gas, increasing With predictive analytics, operators can pre-emptively inter- energy effciency and reducing CO2 emissions. While vene rather than reactively fx. This new approach reduces forecast emissions are set to be more than half that of the process downtime by up to 30% in some deployments. AI industry average, the topside weight requirement (around can also streamline and eliminate waste. Logistics, spares 50,000 tonnes) is a lot heavier than the conventional FPSO management, optimised maintenance and inspection rou- with a processing capacity of over 150,000 bbl/d (average tines, and reduced specialist interventions can signifcantly topside weight of 30,000 to 40,000 tonnes). With FPSO reduce opex. Savings of between 10-20% have been pro- topside costs estimated to cost between US$50,000 and jected and with early adoption by operators including bp

US$60,000 per tonne, the incremental capital required and Shell in GoM, the industry will be watching closely.

can be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

As companies push the deepwater envelope and projects

One emerging technology involves moving processing become increasingly more challenging, designing systems equipment subsea, which could ultimately reduce the op- for remote operations not only reduces safety risk but can erational footprint on the FPSO topsides. This solution materially reduce the cost of crewed interventions over could lead to overall reduction in emissions, while at the feld life. While high initial costs have muted early imple- same time also cutting the topside weight requirement for mentation, with continual improvement in data process- the FPSO. But the potential costs and system reliability ing and AI, tangible savings are likely and with that, a new will be critical to adoption and for long-term operation.

addition to the deepwater playbook.

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