Dubai Drydocks awarded FPSO conversion

Dubai Drydocks (DD) has been awarded a $25 million contract to convert a VLCC into a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.

Work on ?Knock Adoon?, a 240,000 DWT oil tanker owned by Fred Olsen Production (FOP), will begin in early November and be completed within 12 months. The work will include installation of topside production modules, loading and offloading units, mooring equipment, a new accommodation block for 100 people and a helipad. Steel and pipe modifications and tank coating will also be done.

The topside modules are being fabricated by specialist UAE companies contracted by the shipowners. Installation of the modules on the ship will be done by the DD and the conversion work, excluding the building of topside modules, will corresponds to a work volume in excess of a million man hours.

When completed, the ?Knock Adoon? will be chartered to Addax Petroleum (Nigeria) for and operate on the Antan project offshore Nigeria. This is the second large contract to be undertaken for FOP by DD following last year’s conversion of the Norwegian company’s 564,763 DWT ‘Knock Nevis’ (ex-Jahre Viking), the world’s largest VLCC.