Statoil and its partner Sinochem to purchase 'Peregrino' FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) LNG vessel from Maersk
The unit has been in use at the Statoil-operated Peregrino field in Brazil since production start-up in 2011.
The global FPSO contractor BW Offshore will take over operation of the FPSO after a transition period of about six months.
The Peregrino FPSO project was initiated in 2007 and the conversion from a very large crude carrier (VLCC) to a complex offshore oil production installation required more than 15 million labour hours and an investment in excess of USD 1 billion.
At present the vessel is operating in the Campos Basin 85 km off Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The unit has a storage capacity of 1.6 million barrels of oil, and produced well over 15 million barrels during its first year of operation.
Thore E. Kristiansen of Statoil said:
"Brazil plays an important part in Statoil's international growth strategy specialising in deep water and heavy oil. We've been present in Brazil since 2001 and this was the right time for us to invest further. Our operatorship at Peregrino proves that the company's strategy in pursuing complex projects is paying dividends," says Thore E Kristiansen, senior vice president for Development and Production International, South America and sub-Saharan Africa in Statoil.