Liza Unity hull will sail to Singapore this month to begin topsides installation

The hull for the 220,000 bpd Liza Unity FPSO is scheduled to leave the SWS Shanghai shipyard this month for Singapore where the topsides will be mounted ahead of the final sail away to Guyana, Offshore Energy said in a report published on Friday.

The FPSO will have associated gas treatment capacity of 400 million cubic feet per day and water injection capacity of 250,000 barrels per day and will be spread moored in water depth of around 1,600 meters and will be able to store around 2 million barrels of crude oil.

The vessel is the first to be built under SBM Offshore’s Fast4Ward^TM program utilizing a versatile new hull and a range of upper module and mooring system solutions that reduce construction time and cost and are fully responsive to localization requirements.

SBM Offshore has said the hull design also considers the possibility of installing a detachable propulsion system, such as mass-building the general-purpose hull, which significantly reduces towing costs. Compared with traditional FPSOs, the ship’s hull under the Fast4Ward^TM program is widely used and adaptable, and its production cycle can be shortened by 6 to 12 months.

Bruno Chabas, CEO of SBM Offshore, said in May last year with the award of the Liza Unity FPSO, the second for ExxonMobil’s Guyana project, “SBM Offshore’s Fast4Ward^TM philosophy has moved from plan to reality, with the first standard hull now allocated.”

Speaking at a press conference in Guyana’s capital, Georgetown, in November, Director of the Department of Energy (DE), Dr. Mark Bynoe, had said the hull for the Liza Unity is about 85 percent complete. “Topsides fabrication are continuing at Dyna-Mac and Keppel in Singapore. Several trees tubing heads have been completed and are awaiting shipment to Trinidad from Brazil and then into Guyana,” he indicated.

The DE Director said production manifolds are being completed in the US, and the line pipe fabrication, being carried out in Japan, is about 99 percent complete.

“Pipe installation is ongoing in Mexico, buoyancy modules, about 57 percent completed, in the UK and riser, flowlines and jumper detail designs are completed in the US,” he told reporters.

SBM Offshore has also commenced Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) for ExxonMobil’s 3^rd FPSO – the Prosperity – to be used at its Payara Development offshore Guyana.