Process Plant News

Yinson Production officially named its latest addition to the fleet, FPSO Atlanta, during a naming ceremony held at Dubai Drydocks World on December 13, 2023.FPSO Atlanta has a production capacity of 50,000 BOPD and a maximum storage capacity of 1,251,000 bbls. It will feature a carbon management process plant, which uses fuel gas for cargo tank inertization that will significantly reduce flare gas emissions through a closed flare system.Yinson Production and Enauta entered into…

COVID-19 will continue to skew the floating production systems market for the coming 24 months, while buying power for a large portion of FPSO contracts will be centered in Brazil and Guyana/Suriname. These two areas are expected to account for more than 60% of the FPSO contracts awarded between 2021 and 2025.These are the findings shared in a recent floating production outlook report produced by International Maritime Associates (IMA) and World Energy Reports (WER).The 100+ page…

The Kongsberg Information Management System (K-IMS) has now had more than 100 installations for vessel owners and charterers in the LNG sector. As interest in data-sharing for operational efficiency grows in the LNG sector, Kongsberg  has conducted several successful customer trials to show the capabilities and benefits of integrating K-IMS in the last year. K-IMS is designed to enable continuous access to data both on board and ashore through an interactive web portal solution.

Central Asia is a booming oil region not far from the Persian Gulf. Energy companies ply the big lake to rack up staggering barrel counts at elephantine oilfields with names like Tengiz (Kazakhstan) or Kashagan (Azerbaijan). Painstaking, oil-fueled nation-building is underway across an oil province, where very shallow water hinders plant and equipment moves by platform supply vessels. Until now — new module-carrying vessels, or MCVs will float high-capital cargoes through Russia’s river system and across the Caspian shallows to Chevron’s Tengiz Extension project.

Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), the 3DEXPERIENCE Company, world leader in 3D design software, 3D Digital Mock Up and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, today announced that the 3DEXPERIENCE platform now extends the support of XMpLant with an integrated high-performance software tool providing interfaces to the major process plant and ship design systems used by the energy, process and utilities and the marine and offshore industries. Companies can transfer legacy engineering models with associated intelligent information to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform in order to improve collaboration, design time, productivity and operations.

Damen Shipyards Group has completed a construction contract comprising two electric-powered Cutter Suction Dredgers (CSD) for the Canadian oil sands industry. With both vessels built in Canada, the contract marks the close cooperation between Damen and Aecon, Canada’s largest publicly traded infrastructure development and construction company. Two newly-built Damen CSDs have commenced operations in Northern Alberta, Canada. The two 40.64-meter-long vessels perform dredging duties in oil sands tailings ponds.

Despite historic lows in traditional oil and gas energy markets, research and develoment continues in earnest on a number of projects designed to produce green energy. The latest, an Ocean Thermal Energy Converter (OTEC) from KRISO, received Approval in Principle from classification society Bureau Veritas. KRISO (Korea Research Institute of Ships & Ocean engineering), established in 1973, is a government-funded research institute in the Republic of Korea and the leader in technology development in ships and ocean engineering.

The engineering group Monadelphous has won a $200 million Shell Australia contract on its Prelude floating LNG project off the Kimberley coast. The contract is for major, long-term maintenance and modifications services for the Prelude Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) project in Browse Basin, 475km northeast of Broome in Western Australia. Monadelphous will provide maintenance, brownfield modifications and turnaround services to the LNG process plant, support utilities, hull and non-process infrastructure including accommodation and control rooms. The contract also includes the delivery of fabrication services from Darwin in support of offshore operations. The contract is for an initial seven years with a further two, 2 year extension options.

Nautilus Minerals Inc. has awarded a contract for the design of the Solwara 1 dewatering plant to be used on the company’s production support vessel to the Brisbane office of engineering specialist DRA Group. Nautilus CEO, Mike Johnston, commented, "The project team has been working closely with DRA for several years on studies and early engineering. DRA has extensive experience with similar floating dewatering/mineral processing facilities in related offshore industries. DRA’s regional director…

AVEVA announced that it is opening a new Center of Excellence for Operations Integrity Management Solutions for Owner Operators (OOs) in the oil and gas, process plant and power industries. The new facility, based in Stavanger, offers global OOs and Duty Holder EPCs software solutions to create and maintain their Digital Assets. The Digital Asset approach is helping these customers to manage complex facilities to save on cost while delivering a safer and more efficient operating asset.

In an effort to help offshore operators and contractors to get more out of their assets and develop projects more cost-effectively, classification society Bureau Veritas said it has supercharged its reliability, availability and maintenance (RAM) software suite Optimise. Matthieu de Tugny, Senior Vice-President and head of offshore, Bureau Veritas, said, “Low and falling energy prices focus attention onto the reliability, availability and maintenance (RAM) of both existing assets and plant and ongoing developments.

AVEVA today announced additional speaker, sponsor and agenda details for this year’s AVEVA World Summit. The global event is being held in Berlin, Germany, from 14-16 October. AVEVA customers from across the world’s process, plant, power and marine industries are invited to the Summit to share their experiences and business challenges. Industry giants AMEC and RasGas will open the customer presentations, describing how AVEVA technologies are enabling them to lead the way in the creation and management of complex digital assets. These will be followed by 16 additional case study presentations from leading EPCs, OOs and shipbuilders, including Jacobs, WorleyParsons, Foster Wheeler, Toyo Setal, AREVA, ADMA OPCO, Atkins, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) and Namura Shipbuilding.

Global safety seal manufacturer Roxtec has completed a project supplying cable and pipe seals to a six level accommodation module on the Golden Eagle development. The living quarters houses 70 self-contained cabins for up to 140 people. It also includes a gymnasium, dining room, offices and a medical suite. The Nexen-operated Golden Eagle development lies about 70km northeast of Aberdeen. The oilfield is due to become operational later this year. Roxtec UK managing director Graham…

Technip has been awarded an engineering, procurement and technical assistance contract by Fengzhen Wanjie Gas Co. Ltd. for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Fengzhen City, Inner Mongolia Province, China. The plant will consist of 1.3 million Nm3/day(1) LNG train (0.35 Mtpa) and a 0.3 million Nm3/day Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) station. Basic engineering design (BED) of the process plant, BED and detailed engineering design of a LNG tank, procurement of key equipment such as the main cryogenic heat exchanger, mixed refrigerant compressor, boil-off gas compressor, LNG in-tank pumps, cryogenic control and on-off valves. The LNG plant will be based on an Air Products liquefaction process.

Dr. Sam Mannan, safety expert and director of the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center (MKOPSC) will be presenting his research ‘Development of an Effective Framework for Shift Handover’ at the Houston Petroleum Club on April 15, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. The research highlights the importance of a formal communications framework and efficient information management technology in improving safety during shift handover operations. “Based on my research, the key aspect where technology can make a difference is the quality of information and how it is communicated”, said Dr. Mannan.

Today, 319 oil/gas floating production units are now in service, on order or available for reuse on another field. FPSOs account for 65% of the existing systems, 74% of systems on order. Another 25 floating LNG processing systems are in service or on order. Liquefaction floaters account for 12%, regasification floaters 88%. No liquefaction floaters are yet in service – all three are on order. In addition, 101 floating storage units are in service, on order or available. The number of production units off field and available for redeployment continues to grow.

AVEVA  announced  that the AVEVA World Summit 2013 is being held from October 30 to November 1 in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. Customers from across the world’s process plant, power and marine industries are invited to the Summit, which is once again being held as a single global event. “Responding to delegate input, we have evolved the Summit to include dedicated agendas for plant Owner Operators, EPCs and shipbuilders” explained Mat Truche-Gordon, Executive Vice-President, Business Strategy and Marketing.

The U.K. operation of international oil services group Aker Solutions has announced the appointment of a new vice president to lead greenfield projects as the company looks to expand its capabilities in the sector. Bob Shaw’s appointment is the latest in a series of new senior management appointments at Aker Solutions subsea business in Aberdeen as the company embarks on the next stage in its growth strategy. He will lead development of all greenfield projects, focusing on the successful delivery of work for key clients including Statoil, Petrobras, Total E&P, Dana Petroleum, ENI and others.

Petrobas's FPSO P-63 has left the Quip/Honório Bicalho shipyard in the city of Rio Grande (RS) after the modules were integrated and the platform commissioned. With a capacity to process 140,000 barrels of oil/day and compress one million m3 of gas /day, the unit is going to the Papa-Terra field in the post-salt Campos Basin, operated by Petrobras (62.5%) in partnership with Chevron (37.5%). The P-63 was converted into an FPSO from the tanker BW Nisa, at the Cosco Shipyard in China. The unit arrived in Brazil in January this year for its final construction stages. Altogether 23 process plant modules were installed and interconnected.

Drydocks World said that Floating Storage Re-gasification Unit (FSRU) Toscana sailed away from Drydocks World – Dubai. The unit, formerly the 138,830-cbm LNG carrier Golar Frost, has been under conversion since June 2009 at Drydocks world Dubai yard for contractor Saipem and owner OLT. The LNG Carrier, built by Hyundai Heavy Industries was converted into a floating LNG receiving terminal of the FSRU type, and will be permanently moored off Livorno, Italy and connected to shore through a gas export pipeline. There are only a few such units in operation around the world.

AVEVA has announced  its release of new products and improvements in its AVEVA Bocad range of structural steel detailing software. The new products will increase structural detailing capability and enable more design standardization and automation. Together, by enabling more effective decision-making and increasing project transparency, these new features offer potential project time and cost savings of up to 30-40 percent. In addition, AVEVA Bocad has benefited from better integration with AVEVA’s 3D design products - AVEVA Everything3D, AVEVA PDMS and AVEVA Outfitting. Engineering contractors and fabricators working in the Process Plant and Marine industries will therefore be able to achieve greater productivity and project quality.

Since the beginning of this year, orders have been placed for 17 floating production systems. The combined value of the fabrication contracts exceeds $16 billion. By year end there will likely be another five to eight contracts awarded and the overall contract value for the year will exceed $20 billion. Stated in terms of conventional ships, fabrication of floating production systems in 2013 will equate to orders for 220 VLCCs, 360 Suezmax tankers or 800 Panamax bulk carriers. In other words, it is a big market. Yet relatively few shipbuilders are active in this sector.

AVEVA has  announced additional speaker, sponsor and agenda details for this year’s AVEVA World Summit. This global event is being held from 30 October – 1 November in Boston, Massachusetts, USA where author Dan Roam will stimulate delegates’ imagination in an engaging keynote session. Based on his bestselling book ‘The Back of the Napkin’, Dan will explore how visual thinking can be used to improve business communication. This will be followed by the launch of several exciting new AVEVA products…