SBM Confirms SWS for Fast4Ward Hull
Wednesday 9 August 2017
SBM Offshore has confirmed the award of the maiden hull for its new Fast4Ward floater design to China's Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS).
The Dutch floater player said on Wednesday that it signed a newbuild deal with SWS and China Shipbuilding Trading (CSTC) for the floating production, storage and offloading hull in June.
It was reported in mid-July that SWS was in line to land the contract for the hull, having fended off competition from relative floater newcomer China Merchant Heavy Industry (Jiangsu).
SBM said the capital commitments on the hull are phased, with planned yard expenditure of around $20 million this year and around $55 million next year.
"SBM Offshore believes that Fast4Ward is the answer to today's industry challenges and has identified appropriate deep-water development opportunities that it is targeting for the deployment of the hull and the associated topsides catalogue for the benefit of clients," the company said on Wednesday.
Details on the order were scarce but SBM chief executive said on a call on Wednesday morning to discuss the company's second-quarter result that construction should start at the end of this year or earlier next year and take a regular amount of time for building a very large crude carrier.
It was reported that the unit would have a storage capacity of 2 million barrels of oil.
The Fast4Ward concept involves generic newbuild hulls and catalogue solutions for topsides and mooring systems. SBM has previously said the Fast4Ward FPSO can be completed six to 12 months faster than the typical three-year schedule for a third-generation FPSO, and at substantially lower cost.
The base case was listed by the company as a large unit with oil production capacity of between 100,000 and 250,000 barrels per day.
The multi-purpose hull will be fully compatible with an external turret, internal turret or spread-moored mooring systems as well as riser systems.
A generic hull could also ease topsides and mooring integration and help the company meet increasingly stringent local content requirements in countries such as Brazil.
SBM originally planned to pick a yard in mid-2016, but later revised the schedule, partly due to slow recovery of the market.