Floating Production Solutions News

ARMS Reliability said it has reached an agreement with floating production solutions provider MODEC to assist with optimization and rapid strategy development of asset maintenance management philosophy for MODEC’s newest floating production, storage and offloading unit (FPSO) project for the Bacalhau field, offshore Brazil. The Bacalhau FPSO, the largest ever ordered for Brazil, will be capable of producing up to 220,000 barrels of crude oil per day."The four-phase project will begin with the development of an asset management philosophy based on asset strategy management…

Australia's Transborders Energy, a company working to develop an FLNG solution for marginal field development, has signed a partnership agreement with the floating production solutions giant SBM Offshore.Perth-based Transborders said Sunday that the two companies would co-pursue the deployment of Transborders’ FLNG Solution on a range of stranded offshore gas resource opportunities.Transborders has said that its FLNG Solution provides a pre-engineered one point five (1.5) million…

The classification society American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) has issued an Approval in Principle (AIP) to Dutch-based SBM Offshore for its proprietary wind floater design.The global provider of floating production and mooring systems (FPSO) said that the wind floater is a TLP concept and has been designed for the full life cycle, including in-place conditions, as well as wet tow with the wind turbine installed, and mooring hook-up phase.The AIP demonstrates the successful design of the floater, compliant with ABS’ design standards, said the offshore oil and gas company.“We are very proud of this Approval in Principle and it is a testament to the expertise and innovative spirit at SBM Offshore.

Netherlands-based floating production solutions provider SBM Offshore announced that its main Brazilian subsidiary has received written notification from Petrobras of its ability to participate in the recently issued Libra and Sépia FPSO tenders in Brazil.   According to SBM Offshore, the invitation follows on a thorough review of the group's compliance standards by Petrobras, including its compliance department.     A definitive invitation to bid on the Libra FPSO tender requires approval by the partners in the Libra field. SBM Offshore said it continues to be in active dialogue with the relevant Brazilian authorities.

The Comptroller General's Office (CGU), the Attorney General's Office (AGU) and SBM Offshore today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The MoU sets a framework between the Company, the CGU and the AGU for discussions on a potential mutually acceptable settlement and for the disclosure by SBM Offshore of information relevant to the CGU's investigations. SBM Offshore provides floating production solutions to the offshore energy industry, over the full product life-cycle. SBM Offshore is market leading in leased floating production systems with multiple units currently in operation and has unrivalled operational experience in this field.

Strainstall UK Limited has been selected to work alongside SBM offshore on the prestigious Shell Stones project, which is an ultra-deep Oil and Gas development in the Gulf of Mexico and is currently the deepest production facility in the world at approximately 2,900 meters. The project involves the use of an FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Off loading) which has a forward mounted turret with a disconnectable buoy (Buoyant Turret Mooring or BTM) allowing it to weathervane in normal conditions and disconnect from the FPSO upon the approach of a hurricane so that the FPSO can sail to a safer area. The unique BTM design required six specially designed load pins to measure the forces between the Buoy and the FPSO as they are an integral component of the detachable buoy system…

Keppel FELS Limited (Keppel FELS) has delivered the third of four high efficiency jackup rigs to Maersk Drilling (previously Maersk Contractors), on time and incident-free. The rig was named Mærsk Resolve, by Mrs. Sun-hee Madsen, spouse of Mr Erik Madsen, Maersk Drilling’s Site Manager (Overall Projects), at a ceremony today. “Keppel FELS looks forward to deliver as many as 14 rigs in 2009. The timely delivery of Mærsk Resolve without lost-time incidents is a good head start for us.

There are 2,511 identified pending, probable and possible subsea production wells forecast (base case) worldwide over the next six years. Some 18 percent of these subsea completions will be installed in North America, 30 percent in Africa/Mediterranean, eight percent in Asia-Pacific, 26 percent in the North Sea and 18 percent in Brazil. These subsea projects are in various development stages, including: 23 percent at the pending/construction stage, 11 percent bidding, 9 percent in detailed engineering, 16 percent at the front-end engineering design (FEED) stage, 16 percent of the wells probable and 26 percent possible indicating possible development in the future.

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…