On Nov. 13, South Korea’s HD Hyundai Heavy Industries held a steel cutting ceremony for the Trion Floating Production Unit (FPU) at the Ulsan Shipyard, marking the official transition of the project from the design phase to the construction phase.
The Trion project is a partnership between Australia’s Woodside Energy and Mexico’s Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) to develop the Trion field, located 180 kilometers east of the Gulf of Mexico. The project is said to be the first deepwater development project in Mexico with a water depth of up to 2,500 meters.
HD Hyundai Heavy Industries received an order for Trion FPU from Woodside Energy in June 2023. The contract value is approximately 1.5663 trillion won (approximately US$1.193 billion). It would be built by Ulsan Shipyard and is expected to be delivered in the first half of 2027.
HD Hyundai Heavy Industries is responsible for the construction of this FPU using the EPC general contracting method for all works including the semi-submersible lower facilities (hull), the topside facilities for crude oil and natural gas production, and the living quarters.
In January, UK-based consultancy and engineering firm Wood was contracted by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries to carry out detailed engineering design for the topside facilities of the Trion FPU. Under the contract, Wood will complete the detailed superstructure design for the FPU project over the next three years. Wood has designed more than 50 percent of the upper facilities in the Gulf of Mexico over the past decade.
The FPU will be 94 meters long, 94 meters wide and 57 meters high, with a total capacity of more than 44,000 tons, and will be capable of producing 100,000 barrels of crude oil and 4.1 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.
After about a year of design, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries is now starting construction of the semi-submersible lower facilities of the Trion FPU, with fabrication of the topside facilities scheduled to start in early 2025, which will be connected to the lower facilities in the first half of 2026. The FPU is scheduled to sail to Mexico in the first half of 2027 and be deployed in the Trion field in the second half of the year.