Five a year Floater start

MAJOR floating production projects are pushing ahead at a rate of at least five per year with several more expected onstream within the next 12 months.

Over the last six months four floating production storage offloading (FPSO) vessels have started pumping oil offshore Africa. Africa has become a hotbed for FPSO contractors, either when building new vessels or leasing ships to oil companies.

SBM and Saipem are leasing the Jamestown FPSO to Italian oil major Agip for the Okono field offshore Nigeria, which started production operations in December.

Dutch oil firm Coparex brought its Isis field, off Tunisia, onstream with the Ikdam FPSO in January. The vessel was converted by MaltaDry Dock and originally owned by Norwegian contractor Brøvig Offshore.

Canadian Natural Resources gained its first revenues from the Espoir field off Ivory Coast through the Prosafe-leased EsPoir Ivorian FPSO, pumping 40,000 barrels per day.

Bouygues Offshore and Stolt Offshore were major beneficiaries of TotalFinaElfs Girassol FPSO project in deepwaters off Angola. The two European contractors worked not only on the FPSO but also on the subsea production facilities.

The first floating production platform to begin operations off Brazil since the infamous P-36 accident also began pumping this quarter. State oil firm Petrobras started deepwater crude from its giant Marlim Sul field in January through its P-40 floating production semi-submersible and P-38 floating storage vessel.

Current production from the field is around 170,000 bpd, with about 150,000 bpd through the P40 and the rest through single wells tied-back to the P-26 and P37 facilities on the nearby Marlim field, said Luis Bastos Braulio, Petrobras' project manager.

The projects expected onstream this year include Wenchang off China, Bijupira-Salema for Enterprise Oil and an FPSO for Roncador both off Brazil.

In the US Gulf of Mexico, Kerr-McGee is expecting production from Boomvang-Nansen production spars.

Article from Energy Day February 2002

Project Status on Kizomba, Xikomba, Woollybutt, Barracuda, Bijupira, Caratinga, Roncador 1, Wenchang, Zafiro, Etame, Belanak, West Seno, NC 137, Bonga, EA, Okopoko, Kristin, Sable, Boomvang, Crazy Horse, Devil's Tower, Gunnison, Horn Mountain, Marco Polo, Matterhorn, Medusa, Nansen, Na Kika.