Dutch floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) operator SBM Offshore has announced that it has signed a contract for the construction of a floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel and a 20-year charter with Woodside Petróleo Operaciones de México, a subsidiary of Australia’s Woodside Energy. The contract supplements the contract for the transportation and installation of FSOs and Floating Production Units (FPUs) signed in 2023.
The FSO will be deployed at the Trion deepwater field development project in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, US. The new build FSO, based on a Suezmax-type hull, will be equipped with a Disconnectable Turret Mooring (“DTM”) system designed by SBM Offshore. The FSO will be moored in water depth of about 2,500 meters and will be able to store around 950,000 barrels of crude oil.
The Trion project equipped FPU will be built by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries at a cost of about $1.193 billion and is expected to be delivered in the first half of 2027. With an overall length of 94 meters, a width of 94 meters and a height of 57 meters, and a total deadweight of over 44,000 tons, the FPU will be capable of producing 100,000 barrels of crude oil and 4.1 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, and will be connected to an FSO to be constructed by SBM Offshore. UK-based consultancy and engineering firm Wood is responsible for providing detailed engineering design for the upper facilities of the Trion FPU.
The Trion field is located 180 km off the Mexican coastline and 30 km south of the US/Mexico maritime border. The Trion project is an alliance between Woodside (60%, Operator) and PEMEX Exploración y Producción (40%, non-Operator).
The project, with an estimated total investment of $7.2 billion, is Mexico’s first deepwater development in water depths of up to 2,500 meters and reached a final investment decision (FID) in June 2023, and received approval for its field development plan (FDP) from Mexico’s regulator, the National Hydrocarbons Commission (Comision Nacional de Hidrocarburos, CNH), in August 2023 ) approval.
Recently, SBM Offshore was also awarded a contract by French energy giant TotalEnergies to book the hull of an FPSO to be deployed at its oil project in Block 58 off the coast of Suriname.