RE: Redeployed FPSOs & Leasing !2 Aug 2023 20:28
I think that Chessmaster is a bit offside with his 30 month timescales.
For example, the first FPSO of any note was the BP SWOPS vessel built at Harland and Wolff in Belfast and was constructed from scratch in 24 months 1986-1988. The BP project manager was killed in the air crash of a British Midland flight to Belfast that came down on the M1, but it was still built on time.
The first of the Bluewater fleet of FPSOs was the Uisge Gorm, when I was a barmaid in South Shields. It was a decommissioned tanker which was brought into the Tyne at McNulty’s yard and then converted into a FPSO with great British Geordie skill by adding a swivel turret and topside processing in about a year or so. It went out to produce from the Fife field as a wet lease contract and Bluewater went on to convert a string of old tankers into FPSOs on the back of that experience.
So, you don’t need to repurpose an FPSO for Sea Lion if you can repurpose an old tanker.
The Sea Lion oil is waxy, so much so that it is solid at room temperature. I have seen it and touched it at an industry event. You need steam trace heating in the FPSO hold to keep it liquid for transfer to a steam heated shuttle tanker. You need steam heating on both vessels.
Steam heated tankers are fairly common for transportation of waxy and heavy crude oils, and it would be easy work for the Geordie boys to convert another tanker for someone like Bluewater just like they did before. Why Aye lads! Get doon the docks. So, I don’t buy the long lead time story.
Perhaps Jimmy Nail could be the site foreman?
Sign In
Follow the stocks
