MODEC starts EPCI work on Bacalhau field FPSO

Japan’s floating solutions provider MODEC has started the engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) work on the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel set for the Bacalhau field.

MODEC said via social media channels on Monday that the company would proceed with EPCI work on the Bacalhau FPSO.

The company added that it would also start work under the services contract for operation and maintenance at the beginning of its production.

Equinor took its Final Investment Decision (FID) for the Bacalhau field offshore Brazil on 1 June 2021. The investment is worth around $8 billion.

MODEC was officially awarded the contract for EPCI for the FPSO only days after the FID. The official contract was based on a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) for the FPSO which was signed between Equinor and MODEC in January 2020. First steel for the FPSO was cut earlier this month by Chinese shipyard BOMESC.

The FPSO will be deployed at the Bacalhau field in the BM-S-8 and Carcará North blocks located in the giant pre-salt region of the Santos Basin some 185 kilometres off the coast of Brazil.

Equinor plans to operate the FPSO until the end of the license period in 2053. Its field partners are ExxonMobil (40 per cent), Petrogal Brasil (20 per cent), and Pre-sal Petroleo SA (Government Company, PSA Manager).

According to MODEC, the FPSO will be one of the largest FPSOs ever delivered to Brazil. It will have a large topside designed to produce up to 220,000 barrels of crude oil per day, produce and inject up to 530 million standard cubic feet of associated gas per day and inject up to 200,000 barrels of seawater per day. Its minimum storage capacity of crude oil will be 2,000,000 barrels.