Deep water will remain the most significant

activity in the oil industry

Jerry Joynson, Corporate Director, Concept Development of SBM Offshore outlines

some of the challenges in achieving successful FPSO delivery to Oil & Gas IQ Editor

Bryan Camoens. He also explains why we shouldn’t fix something that isn’t broke even

though technical innovations are necessary.

Bryan Camoens: Could you please outline the current position of FPSO’s in today’s

field development strategy?

Jerry Joynson: The major discoveries are taking place in deep water and look to

continue to do so in the foreseeable future, and hence FPSO’s will clearly be central to

developing these deep water fields. The use of steel catenary risers connected to FPSOs,

as demonstrated on the turret moored Espirito Santo in 2008, will extend their range

beyond the current flexible riser limit of around 2,000m. Extraction of the massive arctic

oil and gas reserves will require means to cope with the winter ice shelf, and

disconnectable FPSOs will prove to be invaluable in this respect. The enormous

flexibility of the FPSO will ensure its leading position in regions where there is no

offshore oil export pipeline infrastructure.

Bryan Camoens: What are some of the challenges faced from evaluation to the final

phase of construction?

Jerry Joynson: The challenges in achieving successful FPSO delivery are manifold, and

are often client or regional specific. Local content requirements can be challenging to

comply with, such as the 65% Brazilian content recently achieved on P57; bidding rules

and a need for competitive tendering can hamper clients’ ability to carry out effective

development in collaboration with FPSO suppliers; and resources will become tighter

including the demand for experienced personnel as we pull out of the global recession.

Bryan Camoens: Could you please outline some of the developments for a more

balanced contracting regime in terms of project risk, responsibilities and cost?

Jerry Joynson: Lease based projects can help reduce risks for clients, as the

consequences of the detailed design decisions made in execution remain with the FPSO

lease operator. Performance and incentive based contracts work well with lease contracts,

and leases can also work to deliver lower life cycle costs.

Bryan Camoens: What are some of the technical specifications you must take into

account when choosing FPSO technology to maximizing field productivity?

Jerry Joynson: Maximizing field productivity requires high availability of facilities, and

enhanced recovery technologies including gas lift and water injection, which are now

commonplace on FPSO’s. Sea bed pumping and ESP’s will also be applied and Shells

Brazilian FPSO, Espirito Santo, leased from SBM, which is producing from a heavy oil

field, has demonstrated the effective installation of seabed pumping powered from the

FPSO via the turret mooring. SBM is now designing for Shell a work-over system for

those pumps which is FPSO based.

High availability is strongly linked to robust design. Despite the absolute need for

technical innovations it is demonstrably critical not to change too much from one FPSO

to the next, building in past execution and fleet operating experience to ensure highest

availability. Even where maximum productivity is not necessarily critical, project success

is built on taking many incremental steps project by project, with a large core of staff

experienced in the execution FPSO projects.

Bryan Camoens: By 2020, what advances in new build fpso hull and marine systems

will we see in the FPSO sector?

Jerry Joynson: Clearly the large demand for FPSO’s, many of which are required to be

as large as possible in Brazil given the enormous scale of developments there, will

require both new builds and conversions. Inevitably a fairly standardised new build FPSO

hull will emerge triggered by the likes of the 8 FPSO hull order in Brazil, and shipyards

focussed in this area could be expected to apply bulk carrier design and build

philosophies to drive costs more in the direction of bulk crude carriers.

Jerry Joynson will be speaking at the 12th

Annual FPSO Congress.

Log on to www.fpsoasia.com for more details on the event. You can register by emailing

us at enquiry@iqpc.com.sg or calling us on (65) 67226388