Keppel O&M on track to deliver FPSO for ExxonMobil’s third project off Guyana

With the naming ceremony out of the way, Keppel Offshore & Marine (Keppel O&M), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Keppel Shipyard Ltd (Keppel Shipyard), is on track to deliver a new floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel to SBM Offshore in the first quarter of 2023.

Keppel Offshore & Marine reported on Wednesday that the FPSO Prosperity, the third of four FPSOs Keppel is undertaking for deployment in Guyana, would be delivered to SBM Offshore in 1Q 2023. This FPSO will be chartered to the consortium of ExxonMobil, CNOOC, and Hess for operations offshore Guyana.

The naming ceremony for the FPSO Prosperity was held on 1 February 2023 at Keppel Shipyard and the vessel was named by the guest of honour, Arya Ali, the first lady of Guyana. Keppel O&M’s scope of work on the FPSO Prosperity covered the fabrication of several topside modules, riser, mooring and umbilical structures, followed by the installation and integration of these structures and all topside modules onto the FPSO. 

As a reminder, the hull for the FPSO Prosperity arrived at the Keppel yard in Singapore in mid-August and entered the drydock in October 2021. The vessel left the dry dock and moved to the quayside in April 2022 for the topsides integration phase. SBM Offshore confirmed later that same month that the first series of the topsides module lifting for the FPSO Prosperity had started and shared a video with highlights from this milestone.

Chris Ong, CEO of Keppel O&M, remarked: “We are pleased to support SBM Offshore and ExxonMobil in contributing to Guyana’s oil and gas industry with a third FPSO for deployment in the Stabroek block. FPSO Prosperity reinforces Keppel O&M’s standing as the world leader in the integration of FPSOs and extends our track record of more than 130 FPSO projects. It also marks our 27^th major project for SBM Offshore, building on the strong partnership that we have forged over decades of collaboration.”

This FPSO will work on ExxonMobil’s Payara development project, located approximately 200 kilometres offshore Guyana, which will target an estimated resource base of about 600 million oil-equivalent barrels. The oil major’s Payara project is on track to come online by the end of 2023.

The FPSO Prosperity, which will be spread moored in a water depth of about 1,900 metres, is designed to produce 220,000 barrels of oil per day, with an associated gas treatment capacity of 400 million cubic feet per day and water injection capacity of 250,000 barrels per day. The FPSO will be able to store approximately 2 million barrels of crude oil.

ExxonMobil’s first two sanctioned projects off Guyana are Liza Phase 1 and Liza Phase 2, which are producing above design capacity and are currently operating at a combined gross production capacity of more than 360,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd). The Payara project is the firm’s third development off Guyana.

Furthermore, the U.S. player’s fourth project, Yellowtail, is expected to be on stream in 2025 with a gross production capacity of roughly 250,000 bopd, using the ONE GUYANA FPSO. In addition, ExxonMobil submitted for approval a plan for a fifth development, Uaru, to the government of Guyana in the fourth quarter of 2022. Pending the government’s approvals and project sanctioning, the first oil is anticipated at the end of 2026.

A few months ago, Japan’s MODEC secured a FEED contract for Uaru FPSO. The firm will design and construct this FPSO based on its M350 newbuild design. The FPSO, which will be able to produce 250,000 barrels of oil per day, will have an associated gas treatment capacity of 540 million cubic feet per day, and a water injection capacity of 350,000 barrels per day.

These projects are expected to enable ExxonMobil to have at least six FPSOs with a production capacity of more than 1 million gross barrels of oil per day online on the Stabroek block in 2027, with the potential for up to ten FPSOs to develop gross discovered recoverable resources.