Equinor, together with license partners Repsol Sinopec Brasil and Petrobras, have approved the development concept for BM-C-33, a gas/condensate field located in the Campos Basin pre-salt in Brazil.
“BM-C-33 is a key project in our portfolio and concept select is an important milestone in our effort to mature the project. It is important to further optimise and improve the project business case to make it more robust for the future market,” said Geir Tungesvik, Senior Vice President for Projects at Equinor.
The well streams will be sent to a floating production, storage and offloading unit (FPSO) located at the field, which will process both gas and oil/condensate to sales specifications and then exported. Crude will be offloaded by shuttle tankers and shipped to the international market after ship-to-ship transfer. A new-build hull has been selected to accommodate for 30 years lifetime of the field.
The gas export solution is based on an integrated offshore gas pipeline from the FPSO to a new dedicated onshore gas receiving facility inside the Petrobras TECAB site at Cabiúnas, before connecting to the domestic gas transmission network.
"BM-C-33 holds substantial volumes of gas. A completion of the ongoing liberalisation of the natural gas market in Brazil in line with the current plan, is key for the further development of the project. BM-C-33 is an asset that can generate value for the society, both through the creation of direct and indirect jobs, ripple effects, and through a gas supply that can induce industrial growth, as has happened in other countries,” commented Veronica Coelho, Equinor’s Country Manager in Brazil.
Gas export capacity is planned for 16mn cu/m per day with average exports expected to be 14mn cu/m per day, which represents a significant volume based on current Brazilian gas demand. Daily oil processing capacity is of 20,000 cu/m.
The concept select is a conclusion of a technical and commercial assessment of various developing concepts and landfalls. The chosen concept provides the most robust solution to develop the BM- C-33 project and gas value chain.
Details on project timeline towards next decision gates and start of production are still to be concluded.
SBM Offshore has announced that it has signed a letter of intent (LOI) together with Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) for a 26 year and three month lease (as of the final acceptance of the unit in 2024) and operate contract for the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit Almirante Tamandaré, to be deployed at the Búzios field in the Santos Basin pre-salt area approximately 180km offshore Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
Under the contract, SBM Offshore will be responsible for the engineering, procurement, construction, installation and operation of the FPSO. SBM Offshore will design and construct the vessel using its Fast4Ward programme as it incorporates the company’s new build, multi-purpose floater (MPF) hull combined with several standardised topsides modules.
The Almirante Tamandaré
The FPSO vessel will be the largest oil producing unit operating offshore Brazil and one of the largest in the world, with a processing capacity of 225,000bbl and 12mn cu m of gas per day. Furthermore, the FPSO will have a water injection capacity of 250,000bbl per day and a minimum storage capacity of 1.4mnbbl. For the project, it is estimated that 15 wells will be connected to the FPSO including 6 oil producers, 6 water and gas injectors, 1 gas injector and 2 convertible wells through a subsea infrastructure composed of rigid production and injection pipelines and flexible service pipelines.
Bruno Chabas, Chief Executive Officer of SBM Offshore, commented, “SBM Offshore is proud to announce that Petrobras has awarded the Company the LOI for the 6th FPSO development in the world class Búzios field in Brazil. This award for one of the largest production units in the world demonstrates the trust placed in our ability to reliably deliver large-scale FPSOs and the agreement again confirms the significant value we bring to our clients with our industry leading Fast4Ward programme. SBM Offshore teams look forward to starting the execution phase in order to continue to deliver value to one of our key clients Petrobras.”
Petrobras’ strategy refocused
This agreement has finally arrived after a number of tentative reports last year and follows Petrobras’ new strategy of portfolio optimisation to concentrate its resources on world-class assets in deep and ultra-deep water. To emphasise this policy, the company has also announced the sale of its stake in nine onshore exploration and production fields, called the Miranga Cluster in the state of Bahia, to SPE Miranga S.A., for US$220.1mn. The sale and the FPSO contract is a clear signal of intent from Petrobras and it would be unsurprising if similar activities were announced in the near future as the company seeks to establish itself more rigidly as an offshore oil and gas producer.
Wärtsilä has revealed that in December 2020 it signed five year Optimised Maintenance agreement for two offshore well intervention vessels owned by Siem Offshore. Under the agreement Wärtsilä will provide real-time monitoring and support, using the latest digital technology, to reduce the fuel consumption and emissions of two well intervention vessels (the Siem Helix 1 and the Siem Helix 2) operating in Brazil’s offshore oil fields. The agreement also covers the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) emissions-abatement systems installed with the engines.
Wärtsilä will supply its Expert Insight predictive maintenance solution for use on the two vessels, an innovative service that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced diagnostics to monitor equipment and systems in real time, spot anomalies, foresee potential problems and enable rapid reaction. Also included is Wärtsilä’s Date Driven Maintenance concept which will enable the ship’s crew to conduct condition inspections using borescope optical instruments. These images can then be sent to Wärtsilä’s technical experts for evaluation, and in most cases will lengthen the time required between engine overhauls.
Finally, Wärtsilä will provide the vessels with the Lloyd class-approved connectivity solution with enhanced cyber security - an enabler for onshore digital tools providing cloud based services such as remote monitoring, remote optimisation and support.
Henrik Wilhelms, Director of Agreement Sales at Wärtsilä Marine Power, commented, “Lifecycle support is a key element of our strategy, and our advanced digital and data-based maintenance solutions are central to enabling optimal operational performance. The benefit of being able to efficiently monitor the equipment and support customers remotely is enhanced even more today, since due to Corona-related travel restrictions, in-person visits by service engineers can be difficult to arrange. Since our engineers need to travel less, their carbon footprint is reduced, while at the same time we can optimise the performance of the asset, so it is really a double win.”
Full steam ahead in 2021
Presently, Wärtsilä’s is enjoying a spell in the sun as services are in high demand. So far, in February alone, the company has also revealed agreements to provide Western Pacific Marine Ltd with the advanced hybrid solution for the new Ro-Ro ferry; to supply Norwegian based Solvang with digital Operational Performance Improvement & Monitoring (OPERIM) solution to support the operational efficiency of its fleet; to equip new under construction Isle of Man ferry with a range of comprehensive solutions; and sealed a strategic partnership with SAACKE, to strengthen the companies’ ability to offer a comprehensive range of leading technology solutions to shipyards and ship owners. While in their 2020 annual report Wärtsilä may have reported a contraction in financial performance, it appears they are full steam ahead to reconcile this lost ground in 2021.
A pioneering design for a Floating Normally Unattended Installation (NUI), that has the potential to unlock smaller and deepwater oil and gas reservoirs, is one step closer to commercialisation following an announcement of a collaboration agreement between the engineering consultancy behind the design, Buoyant Production Technologies (BPT), and Subsea 7, a subsea engineering, construction and services company.
The BPT Floating NUI
BPT’s patented proprietary design is a compact single column offshore facility, designed and equipped specifically for unmanned operations. The unit’s low OPEX and low CAPEX deliver optimised lifecycle costs to offshore developments.
With increasing focus on the environmental impact of oil and gas projects, as well as uncertainty surrounding commodity prices, Floating NUIs can offer a robust development solution for a wide range of future projects. BPT has developed Floating NUI into several configurations:
-Utility buoys powered using renewable sources, that can replace subsea umbilicals for well control and management
-Normally unattended production units
-Offshore substation units for use in offshore wind farms and for power import/export to oil and gas infrastructure
Central to the patented design, which is scalable for different field requirements, are several features:
-Slender “hull” structure and integrated (buoyant) “deck box”
-Open deck for topside process equipment and personnel access
-Deck box housing power generation and utilities
-Minimal motions, enabling deployment in harsh environments
-Minimal offshore installation cost
The Floating NUI series includes:
-Production Buoy: A standalone production facility for smaller deep-water developments
-Power & Control Buoy: Providing well-site services to enable subsea developments such as long-range /complex gas and oil tiebacks
-Floating substation: Supporting offshore substations for use on offshore wind developments and power import/export applications
The NUI conecept was developed and tested with multiple industry partners including the Oil and Gas Technology Centre, Premier Oil, Total E&P UK, Lloyds Register, Siemens, Wärtsilä, Ampelmann and BW Offshore.
The Subsea 7 and BPT collaboration agreement
BPT will bring their proprietary Floating NUI designs, configured for a range of offshore developments while Subsea 7 will provide field development and delivery expertise, supporting the integration of Floating NUIs into offshore energy developments and the engineering, construction, procurement, and installation phases of the project.
Duncan Peace, Managing Director at Buoyant Production Technologies, said, “By entering into this collaboration agreement with Subsea 7, we have developed a robust delivery model for Floating NUI projects, which we believe will enable us to successfully deliver projects to our global customer base.”
Thomas Sunde, Vice President Strategy at Subsea 7 added: “We believe BPT’s Floating NUI technology is well placed to help us support clients to improve lifecycle development economics of their offshore energy projects. By working together, we believe both parties will be able to better support our clients’ ambitions.”
For BPT, a wholly owned subsidiary that was formed in 2018, this announcement is a step along their journey to create novel designs to reduce HSSE risks and minimise lifecycle costs with a clear route to the market for the Floating NUI now established.
Following on from the OWI Global Awards hosted at the end of 2020, Rob Potter, Strategy Director at Genoa Black, and Claire Kinloch, CEO of Genoa Black, caught up with some of the winners as they hosted the webinar entitled ‘Turning 2020 lessons and achievements into 2021 opportunities’.
2020 blockers to agility
Potter began the webinar by asking what the key blockers were to agility in 2020, and how the panellists had each worked around this in their respective company. David Carr, Senior VP of International Business at Helix Energy Solutions, noted that the biggest challenges his company faced primarily revolved around travel restrictions and the migration to online working . However, Carr was quick to note the positives, outlining that actually the biggest effect of these was the acceleration of trends that had already been building within the industry. At Helix, Carr had noticed an increased efficiency and agility from working from home (suggesting they had actually signed more contracts than previous years) and that the switch to online had levelled the playing field when it came to operator to service company negotiations as the tradition of travelling to their office had been shattered. Carr said, “No one is doubting that it was a terrible year but there was an acceleration of a lot of the changes we were expecting to see and needing to see that perhaps would not have happened otherwise”.
Echoing Carr’s sentiments on the levelled playing field, Daniele Petrone, Life of Field Solutions Manager at OneSubsea, also pointed to his company’s budgets and plans, which were suddenly thrown awry last March. The manager suggested that suddenly there was a dramatic need to be extremely flexible, adaptable and patient to work around the fluctuating circumstances. As well as thanking his customers for their continued understanding throughout the pandemic, he highlighted the heroic effort of his staff, some of whom had remained mobilised offshore for more than a year without coming home. For Petrone, 2020 had revealed the importance of collaboration, both within the company and at an industrial level, as key to success.
Positive initiatives from 2020
Kinloch introduced the next question, enquiring what the best initiatives put into place in 2020 were and how these can be taken forward and replicated. For Andy Myers, Subsea Director of Oil Spill Response Limited, the most important steps taken in 2020 for his company were all around digitalisation. For a response company, it was paramount to demonstrate that they had the capabilities to respond as quickly as possible, even in the disrupted circumstances, and this prompted a real look into the digital tools that could offer optimal performance, prioritising fast communication above all. Through developments such as a dashboard on their website and investments into user interfaces the company sought to enhance interactions with their clients and ensure people were fully aware how they could respond to any incident. Myers commented, “A lot of this stuff was a reaction but will continue as there is a lot of positives to be taken from them. A lot of the tools will be maintained because they are cost-effective”
Carr admitted that the majority of the initiatives that came to fruition last year for his company, such as the decision to move some business to offshore renewables, were actually started prior to the pandemic, but they paid dividends and meant that much of their business was still utilised. The VP did however pick out that COVID brought into sharp focus the need to stay on top of the safety of his crews, and that it prompted a drive to monitor not only the physical health (with a new biological mindset) but also the mental health of employees.
Benefits of collaboration
For the third and final question, Potter asked what benefits were found in the increased collaboration that each panellist had witnessed within their company. In his line of work, Myers stated that no single company can provide a full oil spill response on their own, it is therefore more efficient and makes fiscal sense to work in collaboration with others, and this was a lesson that nearly all of the offshore industry had taken on board in 2020. He claimed that the shared experience of switching to online working, and the ease of communication that this has opened up, has made people far more open to collaboration than perhaps they have been in the past.
Petrone added to this as he said, “Collaboration has been key to any projects actually happening - even the operation for which we won the award wouldn’t have been possible without collaboration within our company and with our partner Helix. Some jobs would just simply not fly from an economic standpoint. That has been the key”.
Concluding the session, Kinloch identified that collaboration, which will open up companies to new ideas and pull in more diverse teams; digitalisation, which has given many companies the ability to reach more markets and re-balanced some of the relationships within the industry; and diversification, which can be used as a tool to cover all bases and give businesses the resilience to survive; were the key lessons to embrace and take into 2021. She said, “There has been an immense amount of change over the last 12 months. The biggest question moving forward is around managing this change and understanding what this has done to our culture, not just at an industry level but also how we operate within our own business. It is something that we will all have to catch up on and ask ourselves how can we use the pandemic now to our advantage”.
Hear Christian Kruger, VP Account Manager of Welltec discuss how powered mechanical interventions can help solve P&A challenges
Offshore network spoke with ANP to better understand the impact of changing regulations on the Brazilian well intervention market, most specifically future integrity & P&A projects. Below you can find comments on how the integrity & P&A market is changing and how to strategize for this going forward.
Access an outline of Brazil’s current oil and gas industry, sharing ANP’s new focus for well intervention
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