TMC to supply marine compressor for SBM Offshore’s new FPSO

International compressor supplier TMC Compressors (TMC) has won a contract from Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS) to supply a marine compressed air system to a newbuild FPSO the yard is currently constructing for SBM Offshore.

TMC said on Friday that the scope of work was to provide a compressed air system consisting of 4 x 400 kW service air compressors with associated air dryers and filters.

TMC will supply the equipment to SWS’s yard in Shanghai. No financial details of the deal were disclosed.

Per Kjellin, managing director of TMC Compressors, said: “There seems to be a recovery underway in floating production market. Encouragingly, TMC’s marine compressors are increasingly being selected for major FPSO developments.”

SWS is a wholly owned subsidiary of China CSSC Holding Ltd., a publicly listed company controlled by China State Shipbuilding Corporation. SWS covers an area of five million square meters with waterfronts of four kilometers in total.

“The SWS yard clearly stated that they want equipment that has been specifically developed for marine applications – not land-based compressors that have been marinised. We are very thankful for yards that choose to have a life-of-field quality focus which goes over and beyond their contractual obligations for newbuilds,” added Kjellin.

Fast4Ward FPSO

Although TMC has not specified it, the compressor will most likely be fitted on an FPSO constructed under the SBM’s Fast4Ward program. The program was designed to standardize the FPSO construction and delivery process, thus reducing cost and speeding up the time to the market.

SBM announced in August 2017 that it would implement the Fast4Ward program through the signing of a new-build hull contract with China Shipbuilding Trading Company (CSTC) and SWS.

The generic hull has been developed based on Brazilian and West African environmental conditions, with the versatility to receive various large topsides with spread or turret mooring configurations.

According to SBM, the Fast4Ward hull can accelerate delivery of an FPSO by up to 12 months. For a typical project, this can boost value for a client by more than $0.5 billion. As for the first hull covered by the program, it was ordered in June 2017, and the EPC phase of the hull has started.