Stretching from Quamina Street in downtown Georgetown all the way to New Market Street, some 1,115 feet away, the Liza Destiny Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, at its highest point, is taller than the St. George’s Cathedral.
The sheer size of the oil production complex is such that both the Guyana Marriott Hotel and Pegasus Hotel could fit comfortably in the vessel, with room to spare.
This massive floating unit is now spread moored 190 km offshore Guyana at the Stabroek Block in water depths of 1,500 to 1,900 meters and will hold this position for the next several decades, as oil production at the Liza Phase 1 development progresses.
Used in offshore production since the 1970s, FPSOs have been historically utilized in the North Sea, offshore Brazil, Asia Pacific, the Mediterranean Sea and offshore West Africa.
Built in modules, FPSO production equipment can consist of water separation, gas treatment, oil processing, water injection and gas compression, among others. Hydrocarbons are then transferred to the vessel’s double hull for storage.
FPSOs are an optimal choice for development when there are no existing pipelines or infrastructure to transfer production to shore, as is the case offshore the South American country of Guyana, where oil production at the Liza Phase 1 Development has started.
The Liza Destiny FPSO was constructed in Singapore by SBM Offshore and is designed to produce up to 120,000 barrels of oil per day, with storage capacity of up to 1.6 million barrels. After completion, it was officially dedicated by First Lady Sandra Granger in June, sailed from Singapore in July, and arrived in Guyana in August 2019.
