Keppel secures first FSO

Keppel Singmarine in Singapore has clinched a $88 million contract to build a Floating Storage Offloading system (FSO) unit for Lukoil ?Nizhnevolzhskneft (LUKOIL-NVN), a subsidiary of the Russian oil company, Lukoil Oil Company.

The 28,000DWT Ice-Class vessel is a new design by Marine Technology Development, the design arm of Keppel Singmarine. Hoe Eng Hock, Executive Director of Keppel Singmarine, said, “This is our first floating storage and offloading system (FSO) newbuild.

“She is a follow-through of our strategy to enhance our design and construction capabilities and expand into related product lines in sync with the demand in the offshore logistic market.” This FSO is designed for operations in cold temperatures up to minus 20 deg Celsius in ice thickness of 60cm. As the development of oil and gas fields in harsh environments such as the Caspian Sea and the Arctic Circle gathers pace, the shipbuilder is allocating resources and expertise to become the provider of choice for customers seeking innovative solutions in specialized ice-class vessels to operate in difficult weather conditions.

The MTD13028FSO-IC FSO is designed with provisions for forecastle deck structure for single point mooring, with double bottom and double sides, with habitable deckhouse and Cargo Oil Control Station (COCS), machinery space and helipad in the aft of the vessel.

Scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2009, the non-propelled FSO unit will be deployed to the Caspian Sea where it will receive and store incoming crude oil and offload it to shuttle tankers.