IZAR Lands FPSO Order

IZAR has been awarded a contract to build a 900,000bb FPSO (Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading) unit for Belgium's company Exmar Offshore. The unit is scheduled to be delivered at the end of January 2003 and is intended to be operated by Exmar at the Aquitaine field, in the Mediterranean sea, off Libya. The design is characterized by moderate dimensions such as 210.6 m length, 44 m breadth, 23 m depth and 16.5 m design draft if, compared to its huge 900,000bb storage capacity. This newbuilding will actually be the largest ever delivered by the Spanish builder in terms of capacity despite having constructed several large FPSO units in the past, notably Kerr-Mcgee¹s ŒGryphon A' and Texaco UK's Œcaptain', both in the 550,000bb capacity, and even the Œalba' FSU (Floating Storage Unit) for Chevron UK, with an oil storage capacity of 850,000bb. The Aquitaine field unit will be built at Astillero Fene (the former Astano yard of the Astilleros Españoles group) which, since mid-eighties, has developed a consistent experience working for the offshore oil industry. The yard has carried out pioneer projects such as the ŒGryphon A', the first newbuilt FPSO used in a primary production facility in the North Sea, and the Œalba', the North Sea's first FSU at the time. But the yard has recorded some other significant firsts: € First in supplying a purpose-built FSU incorporating the Lord Cullen Inquiry Recommendations (Chevron¹s Œalba') € First in supplying an FPSO to a new frontier (BP's Œfoinaven') € First in supplying an FPSO under the newest Alliance contracting concept (Texaco's Œcaptain') € First in incorporating every type of turret mooring systems such as Tentech, SBM, Golar-Nor, Bluewater, Sofec. € First in delivering a dual drilling unit (ŒDiscoverer Enterprise'). Astillero Fene has implemented effective Project Management and Quality Assurance systems in order to ensure the scheduled construction and delivery times, as well as quality requirements and cost control. It has also implemented a Health, Safety and Environmental Management System to fulfil the strictest policy in these areas. In the past 15 years, the company has delivered ten FPSO's (Gryphon A for Kerr McGee, Captain for Texaco UK, Uisge Gorm for Bluewater Offshore, Petrojarl IV for Golar Nor Offshore, Petrobras 32 for Petrobras, Independence for Conoco, PP Moraes for Petrobras, Delta for Shell International, FPSO VI for SBM and Ailsa Craig for MSR), as well as three ultra-deep water dynamically positioned dual drilling units for Transocean Offshore (Discoverer Enterprise, Discoverer Spirit and Discoverer Deep Seas), four FSU/FSO (Alba for Chevron, Petrobras 47 for Petrobras, Sitala for Shell International and Polysaga for Rasmussen), two semisubmersible units (Petrobras 26 for Tenenge/Ultratec and Drillmar for Repsol) and one heavy cargo barge (Castoro XI for Saipem UK). The contract between Exmar Offshore and IZAR was signed today, July 3, in Madrid, Spain.