International consultancy group on energy, chemicals and renewable, Wood MacKenzie, has noted with great interest that ExxonMobil and its partners, Hess Corporation and CNOOC/NEXEN, have established an aggressive production ramp-up for the Stabroek block.
In one of its reports on the Guyana basin, Wood Mac said that the operator and partners expect to achieve the production of 750,000 barrels of oil per day by 2025, which would be the fastest ramp-up ever seen for a new deepwater project. The group which is revered for its comprehensive analytical data said that part of the strategy is to reduce the time from FPSO contract award to first oil to 25 months, about 12 months less than the average for large FPSO projects.
To do so, it said that the partners are relying on SBM’s Fast4Ward concept. SBM Offshore N.V. is a Dutch-based global group of companies selling systems and services to the offshore oil and gas industry. The chartering company plans to pre-engineer and build standardized hulls and topside packages that could serve a variety of projects. After the order, only a few topside elements are tailor-made for the specific project.
But Wood Mac was keen to note that relying on a single contractor to deliver multiple FPSOs poses a risk. It said, “Financing for FPSO construction can get increasingly expensive as the contractor concentrates its orders in a single project from a single operator, especially with the above-ground risks of a country with no tradition in the oil and gas industry.”
Ultimately, Wood Mac noted that it may result in delays and higher costs for the FPSOs.
To date, SBM has completed building one Floating Production Storage and Offloading Vessel for the Stabroek Block, called Liza Destiny. It is currently working on the second FPSO called Liza Unity and was recently awarded the contract to build the third FPSO called, Prosperity.
