The Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) selects Norway's Remora for negotiations leading to funding awards
The Statement of Work (SOW) covers a 1 year study involving US operators and execution of Industry related work shops addressing various HiLoad DP offloading scenarios in the US Gulf of Mexico (GoM).
"Remora is pleased to learn that RPSEA and the US Department of Energy (DOE) have acknowledged the HiLoad DP solution and that our technology has been successfully selected under the Ultra-Deepwater Program.
It is considered quite remarkable that a Norwegian Company has succeeded in obtaining US government funding and gained acceptance for the HiLoad DP as a viable contender for offloading operations among deepwater operators in US GoM", says Kim Diederichsen, Senior Vice President Americas, Remora.
Remora explains the background: Deepwater operators in the US GoM have seen a need for deepwater direct offloading systems for multiple applications: (1) direct offloading from FPSO's of tanker and/or round configuration in a steady state production environment in ultra deepwater GoM, (2) ability to offload liquid hydrocarbons from existing platforms that have been isolated by pipeline breaks such as occurred in the hurricanes of 2005, and (3) ability to load spilled oil from whatever source it may be collected into a quickly available tanker for delivery to a US GoM ports.
Remora's development of HiLoad DP has reached a stage where the first vessel has been successfully operated under harsh environment sea conditions offshore Norway. Knowledgeable US operators believe that Remora's HiLoad DP vessel can be adapted to US GoM requirements to enable functioning successfully for both a steady state production situation as well as emergency situations.