Floatec News

Fifteen production floaters were contracted in 2017 – 11 FPSOs, two production semis, a wellhead TLP and an FLNG – and the number of deep water projects in the near-term planning queue indicates production floater orders are set to accelerate. This is a big change from 2016 when orders for new units totally dried up and the deepwater future looked pretty bleak. Here’s a round-up of contracts awarded last year and in January 2018. Tempera FPSO - Keppel in January 2017 received a contract from Dixstone Holdings…

At the 150th Annual Meeting of the Members of ABS, three industry leaders were elected to the ABS Council. Following the Annual Meeting, the ABS Council met and elected industry leaders to both its Marine and Offshore Technical Committees. Individuals serving on the ABS Council and the Technical Committees help guide the class society in fulfilling its mission of promoting the security of life, property and the natural environment. “Classification represents the concept of self-regulation for the marine and offshore industry,” said ABS President and CEO Christopher J. Wiernicki.

Classification society ABS has been selected to class two of the major components in Petrobras’ Papa Terra offshore Brazil field development. The tension-leg wellhead platform (TLWP) known as P-61 and the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit known as P-63 will both be ABS classed. The P-61 is the first-of- its-kind TLP dry tree application to be installed in deepwater offshore Brazil. “ABS has a longstanding relationship with Petrobras and, since dry trees are being considered as one of the solutions for deepwater exploration in the region moving forward, we are excited to class this unit and look forward to assisting Petrobras in achieving another milestone in its exploration and production history,” said Kenneth Richardson, ABS Vice President, Energy Development.

The rise and fall of the Brazilian shipbuilding market is well-known, having plummeted from the top of the world list in the early 1980s to the bottom by 1999. Today, Brazil is storming back, an amazing revival of the nearly defunct shipbuilding industry driven by the sudden influx of orders from major offshore oil & gas players, namely Petrobras. Today the shipbuilding market in Brazil has in excess of 100 firm orders for ships in a variety of shapes and sizes, in addition to a large number of drill rigs and production unit orders. In addition, companies from around the globe are flocking to Brazil to set-up shop and engage in the industry’s renaissance.

FloaTEC Singapore Pte Ltd (FloaTEC Singapore), an equal joint venture between Keppel FELS Ltd (Keppel FELS) and J. Ray McDermott (J. Ray), has signed a contract worth about $1b with the Papa-Terra Joint Venture, consisting of Petrobras and Chevron, to build and operate the P-61 Tension Leg Wellhead Platform (TLWP). This follows shortly after a Letter of Intention for the unit was issued by the Papa-Terra Joint Venture to FloaTEC Singapore in October 2009. The project scope — comprising design…

J. Ray McDermott will undertake fabrication and installation work for the P-61 Tension Leg Wellhead Platform (TLWP) in more than 3,871 feet of water, for the Papa Terra Joint Venture, consisting of Petrobras (operator) and Chevron. The overall P-61 project — comprising design, engineering, construction, transportation, installation, and a three-year limited operations contract — was awarded to FloaTEC Singapore Pte Ltd (FloaTEC Singapore), a joint venture between Keppel FELS Ltd (Keppel FELS) and J. Ray. Almost all the work will be carried out through the combined resources of Keppel FELS, J. Ray and FloaTEC LLC (FloaTEC), the US-based joint venture company that will perform global engineering and basic design work.

J. Ray McDermott, S.A. and Keppel FELS Limited. are in the process of forming a new joint venture company, to be named FloaTEC, LLC, to provide deepwater and ultra deepwater oil and gas development solutions. To add to the Joint Venture’s offerings, J Ray and Keppel FELS plan to draw upon the purchased patent rights previously owned by ABB for the Extended Tension Leg Platform (ETLP) and Single Column Floater (SCF) designs. Combined with J Ray’s existing SPAR technology and Keppel FELS’ semi-submersible expertise, FloaTEC, LLC will be in a unique position to provide a wide range of solutions for deepwater developments. “We believe that the timing could not be better for this cooperation with our colleagues at Keppel FELS and the establishment of this exciting joint venture…