In January 2011, the FPSO Pazflor started its 3-month ocean journey from Korea to Angola. Ahlers is the logistics partner for the entire process, from the construction site to its final destination. This includes local procurement, MEDEVAC coordination, personnel transfers by helicopters, and cargoes supplied by vessels.
A floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore industry for the processing of hydrocarbons and for storage of oil. A FPSO vessel is designed to receive hydrocarbons produced from nearby platforms or subsea templates, process them, and store oil until the product can be offloaded onto a tanker or transported through a pipeline.
FPSOs are preferred in frontier offshore regions as they are easy to install, and do not require a local pipeline infrastructure to export oil. FPSOs can be a conversion of an oil tanker or can be a vessel built specially for the application. Floating production, storage and offloading vessels are particularly effective in remote or deepwater locations where seabed pipelines are not cost effective. FPSOs eliminate the need to lay expensive long-distance pipelines from the oil well to an onshore terminal. They can also be used economically in smaller oil fields, which can be exhausted in a few years and do not justify the expense of installing a pipeline. Once the field is depleted, the FPSO can be moved to a new location.
The giant FPSO Pazflor was towed by three huge sea tugs and after having passed Singapore Strait (first cargo operations), and Port Kelang, Malaysia (first crew change), is now proceeding to La Réunion and Cape Town (South Africa), for personnel transfers by helicopters and cargo by supply vessels.
Immediately after the FPSO Pazflor same operations were carried out for the FPSO Usan, however from Korea to Nigeria.
An FPSO in a nutshell:
- Length: 325 m
- Width: 75 m (with risers protection)
- Heigth to main deck: 32 m
- Height to flare: 165 m
- Oil production: 220,000 b/d
- Oil storage: 1.9 million barrels
- Living quarter: up to 240 persons
- Deserving 49 wells at about 800 m depth
For more information please don't hesitate to contact Capt. Guy Bultynck, tel +32 35437230, guy.bultynck(at)ahlers.com
