InterMoor completes installation job for Chevron’s new Thai FSO

InterMoor, a provider of mooring services in subsea services group Acteon, has recently completed work on the installation of the new Benchamas 2 floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel off Thailand. 

Initial production in Block B8/32 in the Gulf of Thailand started in 1999 using the Benchamas Explorer FSO. After operating the facility for almost 20 years, Chevron decided to replace the aging facility with the new FSO Benchamas 2.

The FSO Benchamas 2 was delivered by maritime solutions and services provider MISC Berhad in March.

Conversion works for the FSO Benchamas 2 Project started in early 2017. The donor vessel for the conversion was the formerly AET-operated Bunga Kelana 5, an Aframax tanker built in March 1999.

The FSO has a storage capacity of 650,000 barrels with 12 years design life without drydocking. The project marked MISC’s maiden foray into Thailand’s oil and gas market.

The contract for the lease and operations of the FSO was secured through an international competitive bidding process and was signed between MISC Offshore Floating Terminals (L) Limited (MOFT) and Chevron Offshore (Thailand) in August 2016.

InterMoor said on Tuesday that its scope of the project included project management, engineering, and manpower for the tow of the FSO Benchamas 2 from MMHE shipyard in Malaysia to the Benchamas field, offshore Thailand.

The company also chartered two anchor handling tug supply (AHTS) vessels for station keeping during the hook-up of the FSO and provided engineering and analysis to support the hook-up of the FSO and installation of the riser system.

The new FSO is turret-moored at the same location as the Benchamas Explorer and is connected to the existing mooring system and piles, in 71 meters of water.

Martin Kobiela, managing director of InterMoor Asia Pacific, said: “The project involved a high level of details and complexity and we are proud to have completed it successfully and to have been associated with such an important endeavor.”

The company added that the work was completed on time, without interruption of production, and without any lost time incidents.