Keppel Corp has teamed up with Hyundai Heavy Industries to build a $2.3bn floating storage and regasification unit for Brazilian oil major Petrobras.
The Singaporean yard will fabricate the topside modules weighing 43,000 metric tonnes at its shipyards in Singapore, China and Brazil, while the South Korean yard will build the FPSO’s hull and living quarters for 240 persons.
Keppel will also be responsible for the integration and commissioning works of the FPSO as well as the final phase of offshore commissioning works.
Scheduled for completion in late 2024, the FPSO will be customised for deployment in Brazil’s prolific Buzios field.
With a production capacity of 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil, 7.2m cbm of gas per day, the FPSO will rank among the largest in the global operating fleet of FPSOs.
This will be the seventh FPSO to be installed in the Buzios field, in Brazil's offshore pre-salt area.
The project will involve the interconnection of 13 wells to the FPSO through a subsea infrastructure composed of rigid production and injection pipelines and flexible service pipelines.
The Buzios field, considered the world's largest deepwater oilfield, is expected to reach production of above 2m bpd of oil by the end of the decade.
Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M) chief executive Chris Ong said the tie-up with Hyundai Heavy Industries was aligned with the company’s recent transformation plans, where not all of the work will be done at Keppel yards.
Ong said the tie-up, which also included DORIS Engenharia in Brazil, would “harness our complementary strengths” and enable Keppel O&M to expand its turnkey offerings across the value chain.
He added that the contract would bring a “sizeable amount of the work to Brazil, generating thousands of job opportunities for the local eco-system”.
BrasFELS, Keppel’s yard in Angra dos Reis, Brazil, is currently also undertaking integration and fabrication work for two other FPSOs that will operate in the Sepia field and the Buzios field.
Keppel Corp told investors in late April that it was in “advanced discussions” with Petrobras to build an FPSO for the Buzios field.
Keppel O&M’s net orderbook stood at SGD 3bn at the end of the first quarter, about 80% of which comprised renewables and gas-related solutions.
“Keppel’s business units made creditable progress in the first quarter of 2021, against the backdrop of a gradual recovery from the pandemic,” chief executive Loh Chin Hua said at Keppel's recent quarterly update.
