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 News Release
  November 27, 2009

 

Orders Have Resumed Since Mid-Year, But Off-Hire
Units Looking For Work Have Accumulated

 

IMA has just completed a detailed assessment of the floating production sector. Some highlights of the study are provided below. 

Production Floater Orders Resume

Orders for floating production systems have resumed after a one year hiatus. Six FPSOs and a TLP have been ordered since mid-year. They include a $2 billion+ FPSO/TLP combination for the Papa Terra project and a $1 billion+ FPSO for Parque das Baleias in Brazil. Others are an FPSO for offshore West Africa, two FPSOs for Vietnam and an FPSO for the Adriatic.

170 New Floater Projects in the Planning Pipeline

The number of potential floater projects in the planning cycle continues to grow. There are now 170 projects currently in the bidding, design or planning stage that potentially require a floating production or storage system. This is a net increase of 10 projects over July.

Brazil is the most active region for future projects, with 34 potential floater projects in the planning cycle. Next in line is West Africa with 31 projects, followed by SEA with 26 projects, the GOM 25 projects and Northern Europe 19 projects.

 

Where Floater Projects Are Planned

      

Of the 170 planned projects, 43 are in the bidding or final design stage. These projects are likely to start within the next 12 to 24 months. More than 70 percent of the near term projects are concentrated in four regions - Southeast Asia, West Africa, Brazil and Northern Europe.

The current list of floater projects in the planning pipeline includes 77 individual field operators. Some are planning multiple floater projects, some have a single project. Petrobras is clearly the lead player, with 28 floater projects in the planning stage. Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, ENI, BP, Total, Anadarko, Pemex and Petronas are next in line. Together these ten field opreators account for 53 percent of the floater projects being planned.

As Many as 23 Production Floaters Now Off Hire

The number of available production floaters has been increasing over the past year. There could be as many as 23 units now looking for work. Included among these are 13 units that have come off field and are being actively remarketed for redeployment. Another 5 units speculatively ordered are nearing completion and being marketed for field use. Then there are 5 units that appear available, though their status and suitability for field use is unclear.

Off-Hire Production Floaters
(as of November 2009)

Off-hire units, being remarketed

·       Munin FPSO

·       Griffin Venture FPSO

·       Front Puffin FPSO

·       Ruby Princess FPSO

·       Ming Zhu

·       Uisge Gorm FPSO

·       Glas Dowr FPSO

·       Modec Venture I FPSO

·       Falcon FPSO

·       Rang Dong 1 FPSO

·       BW Carmen FPSO

·       OPTI-EX Semi

·       FPF 1 Semi

 

Speculative units, being marketed

·       Nexus 1 FPSO

·       Deep Producer 1 FPSO

·       MT Arc FPSO

·       Sevan 4 FPSO

·       Sevan 5 FPSO

Off-hire units, questionable status

·       Jamestown FPSO

·       San Jacinto FPSO

·       Orca Semi

·       Olinda Star Semi

Speculative unit, part complete

·      MPF hull


Yet despite the growing number of available units, the six FPSOs ordered over the past several months utilize newly converted hulls. The decision to convert a trading hull, rather than modify an existing FPSO, signals potential difficulty in securing redeployment contracts for units coming off field.

*      *      *      *      *      *     

IMA has published 37 reports on the floating production sector over the past 13 years. In each 150+ page report IMA identifies floater projects being planned, assesses the type of production floater likely to be required and profiles market share of major players


contact Jim McCaul

tel:  1-832-203-5622 (Houston)
      1-202-415-8501 (Washington)

email:  imaassoc@msn.com