Flexibility Key to MES’ New FPSO Hull Platform

Japanese shipbuilder Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (MES) announced it has developed a next generation hull platform for floating production, storage and offloading system (FPSO) that aims to offer improved flexibility between projects.

 

Offshore oilfields vary in environmental conditions and oil properties relative to geographical location, requiring shipyards to frequently change hull design and construction scheme to satisfy varying requirements for each project. Though some concepts of standardized FPSO or simple generic FPSO have been proposed as possible solutions for this issue, MES said it seems essentially difficult to use a single and simple fixed design across various projects.

 

MES has therefore developed a next generation offshore platform for FPSO, Mitsui noah-FPSO Hull (noah : New Offshore Adapted Hull), which enables flexible FPSO hull design depending on production facilities, instead of adjusting the production facilities to the hull.

 

By considering bow and stern parts and parallel mid body of the hull separately, the noah-FPSO Hull realizes flexibilities of design and construction, MES explained.

 

In particular, modular design method, noah flex-modular design, which enables the hull to change its length of parallel mid body depending on each project , and noah-flex modular construction, which expand its flexibility of construction in horizontal specialization scheme, are applied to the noah-FPSO Hull.

 

These methods also make it possible to separately construct a self-propelled hull which consists of only bow and stern part, and a parallel mid body at different shipyards.

 

MES and American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) have launched a foint development project (JDP) to develop the epoch-making design and construction method of noah-FPSO Hull, and MES has obtained approval in principle (AIP) for the noah-FPSO Hull and its design and construction method from ABS.