Keppel secures FPSO conversions

Singapore-based Keppel Shipyard Limited has secured contracts worth over S$215 million ($152 million) for the conversion of tankers to floating, production, storage and offloading units.

These include the conversions of a tanker for Danish rig operator Maersk Contractors and the first FPSO in the US Gulf of Mexico for Norwegian contractor BW Offshore. The latest Maersk contract is for the conversion of the company’s second FPSO out of Singapore. The FPSO will have a new VLCC hull that is due to arrive in the yard from China in the fourth quarter of 2008 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2009.

The FPSO will operate in a water depth of around 100 metres at the Peregrino field in Brazil’s Campos basin, and is capable of producing 100,000 barrels of oil per day with a storage capacity of 1.6 million barrels of oil.

BW Offshore’s contract calls for the conversion of a tanker to the first FPSO for the Cascade and Chinook fields in the US Gulf of Mexico. When completed in the third quarter of 2009, the FPSO will be turret moored at a water depth of around 2,600 metres.