FPSO Conversion Project
A floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and storage of hydrocarbons. It is designed to receive oil or gas produced from nearby platforms, process it and store it until the oil or gas can be offloaded onto a tanker or transported through a pipeline.
FPSOs can be derived from conversion of oil tanker vessels or can be built specially for the application. Maritime Services have been involved in two full FPSO conversion projects to date for Chevron and Enterprise Oil/Shell. Both projects ran over several years with our surveyors working as required to ensure everything was delivered as required within a complex and constantly changing schedule.
Our role within these FPSO projects has included:
- The documentary review stage, during which we checked classification records for potential candidate ships and prepared reports summarising our findings
- Provided input to the technical requirements of the tender document in relation to ship inspection and evaluation both pre and post contract award
- Undertook physical inspection of all short listed candidate vessels (worldwide) and quantification of their current structural and mechanical condition including estimates of probable steel repairs required for each vessel
- Reviewed the different technical standards for use within the technical specification
- During the bid evaluation process worked as part of the bid team to help compare the different shipyard bids and evaluate them particularly with respect to areas of weakness on the proposed structural inspection, evaluation and rectification procedures
- Post contract award we reviewed the initial ABS SafeHull A study and give input to areas requiring clarification. Subsequently we undertook reviews of the ABS SafeHull B and ABS Dynamic Load Analysis reports
- Attended the shipyard prior to arrival of the vessel to assist with the establishment of site inspectors, document control systems and reporting structures
- Liaised with the primary contractor for all structural inspection and modifications
- Conducted detailed structural inspection of the entire vessel in association with the attending Classification Society Surveyor
- Reviewed the inclining test procedure for the completed FPSO
- Remained on site until completion of all structural inspections and modifications
