Hanwha Ocean’s standardized FPSO concept wins double blessing

South Korea’s shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean has received approvals in principle (AIP) for the preliminary front-end engineering design (pre-FEED) of a standard floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facility from two classification societies, the United States’ American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and France’s Bureau Veritas (BV).

The concept entails a 340-meter-long and 62-meter-wide unit with a daily crude oil production capacity of 190,000 barrels and the ability to store around 2.38 million barrels of crude oil. The design is meant to support a topside crude oil and gas production facility weighing up to 55,000 tons and measuring 17,600 square meters (m2). Thanks to its hull design, it would be able to operate for up to 20 years without re-docking.

Hanwha Ocean’s pre-FEED work to develop a standard FPSO that can be deployed in the deep sea of ​​West Africa lasted from February to August. The firm believes the standardized concept will help boost its competitiveness as it will lead to shorter construction periods and lower costs.

“We expect that the demand for marine plants will continue to grow steadily, especially in Africa and South America,” said a Hanwha Ocean representative. “We will continue to strengthen our competitiveness in the global marine market through continuous technological innovation and product development.”

Hanwha Ocean’s marine business division is pursuing a transformation into a provider of engineering, procurement, construction, installation, and operation solutions for floating marine production facilities and marine renewable energy projects, intending to expand the marine energy value chain.

As part of this effort, the firm recently upped its offer to purchase Singapore’s Dyna-Mac, first announced in September. The Singaporean player specializes in manufacturing marine plant topside structures for FPSO and floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) units. The move seemed to have worked since the independent directors of Dyna-Mac recommended that shareholders accept Hanwha’s cash offer.