Increasing Worldwide Focus on Marginal and Remote Offshore Reserves is Leading to a Growing Demand for FPSOsled to a global energy crisis.

Wednesday 7 March 2012, Amsterdam

The study, which is an offering from the company’s Energy Research Group, provides an in-depth analysis of the global FPSO and FSO industry highlighting the various concerns and shifting trends. The report provides a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the industry, citing the strategic incentives of the respective parties involved at various levels of the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of the key trends and challenges of relevance. The report is built using data and information sourced from proprietary databases, primary and secondary research and inhouse analysis by a team of industry experts.

Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) technology utilizes floating vessels with onboard processing units to treat extracted hydrocarbons at a preliminary level to achieve greater efficiency in storage and transport, thereby making production cost effective. The FPSO and Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) industry has grown steadily over the past three decades to become one of the most prominent trends in the offshore oil and gas industry. With technological innovations driving the growth of the industry, and greater interest in exploiting marginal and stranded offshore reserves, FPSO technology is expected to penetrate the market further in the coming decade.

Increasing Worldwide Focus on Marginal and Remote Offshore Reserves is Leading to a Growing Demand for FPSOs

The gradual depletion of oil and gas reserves worldwide has led to a global energy crisis. In the face of rising demand, there is a tremendous need for additional reserves of oil and gas which can be brought into production.

The above factors have led several nations, and oil and gas firms, to consider production from marginal and remote offshore reserves. Production from such reserves using conventional methods such as fixed platforms and rigs is extremely intensive in terms of cost and is therefore not commercially viable. Any such venture would involve anchoring the setup on a permanent basis, whose movement to another marginal or remote reserve at a different location would be time consuming, difficult and expensive. Installing a different set up at another well is impractical to an even greater degree due to the high costs involved.

Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels offer an advantage in this respect, in that they are mobile and can start production at another site once a marginal reserve runs out of oil or gas. This holds true even in the case of stranded reserves, which tend not to be in clusters and render the building of a pipeline commercially unviable. Certain deepwater reserves with adverse weather conditions present similar hurdles for pipeline construction, and FPSOs are beneficial in such scenarios, due to their mobility and ability to empty stored oil and gas through tankers.

Damage Caused by Hurricanes in Recent Years to Offshore Production Infrastructure Has Led to a Decreased Demand for Fixed Platforms while Providing Momentum to the Growth of FPSOs

Hurricanes are natural disasters which cause damage to infrastructure and a suspension of production activity in offshore fields. Several offshore hubs around the world, most notably in the hurricane-prone region of the US Gulf of Mexico (USGOM), have experienced extensive damage to offshore production equipment. The strong water and wind currents caused by hurricanes such as Rita, Katrina, Ivan and Dennis have been responsible in dismantling equipment, leading to fractures, leaks and dislodgement.

Categorizing by the kind of equipment, fixed platforms were the units most affected by adverse weather conditions, while Mobile Offshore Drilling Units (MODUs) were also reasonably affected. There was also minor damage to semi-submersibles, but not to an extent comparable with fixed platforms. The low damage to semi-submersibles can be attributed to their flexibility and ability to dodge currents.

This issue of weather damage has led directly to a decreased interest in fixed platforms in hurricane-prone offshore regions around the world. Fixed platforms are permanent structures that cannot be moved in the event of a hurricane, and this inevitably exposes them to adverse weather which renders them susceptible to damage. In contrast, modern Floating-Point Units (FPUs) have a disconnectable turret-buoy mooring system which allows the FPU vessel to disconnect itself from the fixed mooring system, in order to move to a safer place and shield itself from the strong destructive currents of the hurricane.

There has been increased interest by several oil majors in deploying FPUs in hurricane-prone regions.

Annual Crude Oil Production Capacity by Company, FPSO Industry, Global (MMbbl), H1 2011

The aggregate crude oil production capacity of the global FPSO fleet by company, as of H1 2011, has been depicted.

Petrobras has emerged as the largest crude oil FPSO player in the world with an annual production capacity of 636.2 MMbbl, while Exxon Mobil has emerged as the second largest in the industry with an annual production capacity of 398 MMbbl. The extensive offshore activity in the sub salt basins in Brazil has provided immense growth opportunity to the FPSO industry, thereby making Petrobras an industry leader

FPSO Industry, Global, Natural Gas Production Capacity Addition (bcf), H2 2011-2016

Statistics on the global offshore natural gas production capacity addition, for the period from H2 2011 to 2016 are represented.

it can be observed that the maximum natural gas capacity addition is expected to occur in 2012, with Europe being the most active region in the coming year. Overall, South and Central America is the region with the most predicted capacity increase, with two major leaps in 2012 and 2014.