RE: FPSO market heating up22 Jan 2024 02:40
….and design, are envisaged for this FPSO contract, with the operator said to be eyeing first oil as early as 2026 if it can secure a redeployment — a timeline that could prove ambitious if ConocoPhillips opts for a novel floater based on a tanker conversion.
Earlier touted specifications for the Salam-Patawali FPSO include estimated production capacity of 30,000 to 50,000 barrels per day of oil and up to 600,000 barrels of crude storage. The unit, likely on a multi-year lease, would also be expected to handle some 100 MMcfd of gas.
Also for deployment offshore Malaysia, PTTEP — Thailand’s national E&P player — is looking for an FPSO to replace the ageing unit on its Kikeh oilfield offshore Sabah.
The operator early this year is expected to invite selected qualified floater contractors to take part in a limited tender process.
Kikeh currently produces via its namesake FPSO, which is owned by MISC in a joint venture with SBM Offshore. But the Kikeh FPSO has a hull that is approaching 50 years old and PTTEP and co-venturer Petronas Carigali are therefore in the market to replace the vessel, the current charter of which expires in January 2028.
However, industry sources have cautioned that the FPSO contract might not appeal to all contractors, even if they have capacity to take on the Kikeh job. Upstream earlier reported that PTTEP plans to replicate some of the existing floater’s topsides on the new FPSO, despite it being much smaller, and also plans to retain some of the existing subsea production arrangement.
The new FPSO for Kikeh would be on a fixed 10-year lease with potential extensions. Market sources have said the replacement floater would have oil production capacity of between 40,000 and 46,000 bpd of oil, plus gas handling of up to 90 MMcfd.
The existing unit, the first deep-water FPSO in Malaysia, has a production capacity of 120,000 bpd of crude and 150 MMcfd of gas.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Inpex requires a very large FPSO for its Abadi natural gas project in the remote east of the Indonesian archipelago.
The Abadi FPSO will have gas processing capacity of up to 1.8 billion cubic feet per day and condensate production of 35,000 bpd.
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