Keppel on track to deliver Lukoil FSO

Singapore-based Keppel Singmarine is on track to deliver an ice class Floating Storage and Offloading vessel (FSO) to repeat Russian customer, LUKOIL- Nizhnevolzhskneft (Lukoil).

The vessel was recently christened YURI KORCHAGIN at Keppel Singmarine?s sister yard, Caspian Shipyard Company (CSC) in Azerbaijan and was completed on-time and with zero Lost-Time Incidents (LTI) in over 2 million man-hours worked.

YURI KORCHAGIN will be the first ice-class FSO to be completed and deployed in the Caspian region. A new design by Keppel Singmarine?s technology arm, Marine Technology Development (MTD), the FSO can withstand ice conditions of minus 20 degrees Celsius and ice thickness of 0.6 metres.

The ice-class FSO was first built as two separate hull sections at Keppel Singmarine in Singapore so that they could be towed through the Volga-Don river canal, known for its strict restrictions on height, width and draft. The two hull sections, living quarters, helideck and other equipment were transported 11,000 km to CSC where it was assembled and completed.

This method of constructing a vessel in sections and then transporting them through the narrow Volga-Don River Canal into the Caspian Sea for completion is part of Keppel O&M?s expertise having previously built a jackup rig and a semisubmersible in CSC through this method.

With oil storage design capacity of approximately 28,000 tonnes, the FSO will be deployed in the Yuri Korchagin field in the Russian Federation sector of the Caspian Sea. It is designed with provisions for forecastle deck structure for soft yoke mooring system, double bottom and double hull, a superstructure for 32 men and a cargo oil control station, machinery space and a helipad in the mid-section.

Offloading of oil is preformed at the stern through a 146 metre long, 16 inches diameter floating hose at approximately 1,500 m3 per hour. The FSO is designed for uninterrupted services in receiving crude oil from a fixed ice-resistant platform (IFP-1) through single buoy mooring system, storage of oil onboard and finally offloading of oil to shuttle tankers.