As oil prices increase, so does the interest in developing alternative oil production facilities. FPSOs are particularly effective in remote or deepwater locations, where seabed pipelines are not cost effective. Floating Production, Storage and Offloading Vessels (FSPOs) eliminate the need to lay expensive long distance pipelines from the oil well to an onshore terminal. They can also be economically advantageous in smaller oil fields that are typically exhausted in a few years and do not justify the expense of installing a fixed oil platform. An FPSO can be moved to a new location when oil production in a smaller field is exhausted.
Traditional and innovative design solutions
FPSOs are often built from decommissioned oil tankers, which have been stripped down and equipped with oil production facilities. Ramboll has been involved in several large scale projects on this type of FPSOs, such as the Canadian White Rose and the Nexus.
We also provided design for Kanfa-Sevan Marine’s innovative cylindrical Sevan Stabilised Platform (SSP), which was first introduced in 2006. Ramboll was responsible for the engineering of the topsides modules, skids and piping on the relatively confined space of the SSP deck as well as comprehensive safety analyses of its safety procedures.
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