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Saipem chooses BV to oversee $4bn FPSO project for Total

Saipem chooses BV to oversee $4bn FPSO project for Total
Bureau Veritas (BV) has been nominated by Saipem to oversee the conversion of two VLCCs into turret-moored Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels as part of a $4bn project commissioned by Total.

The contract covers the conversions at Saipem’s Sembawang Shipyard in Singapore, amounting to $3bn, followed by the vessels’ deployment off Angola in a seven-year contract with Saipem Floaters Business Unit worth a further $1bn.

Once converted, the vessels will each have storage space for 1.7m barrels of oil, as well as oil treating capacity for 115,000 barrels per day, a water injection capacity of 200,000 barrels per day and a 100m standard cu ft gas compression capacity.

The FPSOs will be deployed to the Koambo Field Development Project in off Angola, and are slated to be operational by the first and second quarters of 2017.

“[Saipem] sought a third-party company with sufficient FPSO experience to deal with a challenging first conversion project for Total,” said Marie-Francoise Renard, BV offshore sales and marketing director. “The third-party had to have sufficient resources in South-East Asia for the follow-up of the conversion of two large FPSOs more or less in parallel, and, crucially, they needed to work with a company that has the capacity to work in Angola for local content issues during the EPC and in service phases for at least 15 years.”