More Than 30 Years’ Experience With F(P)SO’s and Offloading Techniques

摘要

TOTAL E&P Branch, present today in more than 43 countriesrnand producing 2.6 Mboe/d, has steadily become an importantrnplayer in the field of Floating (Production) Storage andrnOffloading facilities, key to several oil and gas fieldrndevelopments. The experience described below is therncumulated experience (upstream) from TOTAL, Petrofina andrnElf Aquitaine who successfully merged in 1999 and 2000 tornform TOTAL.rnAs the reader will rapidly notice this experience isrnextremely rich and diversified and includes many maidenrninstallations as well as technology breakthroughs.rnSome of them:rn- The Ifrikia (Ashtart field Tunisia 1973) was the first FSOrn(Floating Storage Unit, converted tanker) permanentlyrnmoored by a rigid yoke on a CALM buoy, followed inrn1978 by the Ifrikia II, the first purpose build FSO barge.rn- The Frigg flare (North Sea 1974) was the secondrnArticulated Column. It followed an experimentalrnarticulated column installed in 1967 in the Bay of Biscay.rn- The first Ready Made Dolphin was installed onrnQuinfuquena (Angola 1979).rn- In the same year the first two turret type CALM buoysrnwere installed on Mayumba (Gabon 1979), then Kolern(Cameroon 1979).rn- Three CALM type buoys of a new design using selfrnlubricating bushing in lieu of main roller bearing, werernordered for Rospomare (Italy 1981), ABK (U.A.E 1981)rnand Victoria field (Cameroon 1982).rn- The Licorne Pacifique converted tanker on Palanca fieldrn(Angola 1984) was the third CALM soft-yoke (the firstrnone was in 1981).rn- The first disconnectable FPSO soft mooring on a fixedrntower was installed on Weizhou 10-3 field (Beibu WanrnSouth China Sea P.R. China 1986).rn- The most southerly CALM installed in Hidra Tierra DelrnFuego (Argentina 1987).rn- The second ever installed LPG FSO started operations onrnNKossa field in 1995 (Congo).rn- The first huge concrete FPU (Floating Production Unit)rnNKP was installed on spread mooring on NKossa fieldrn(Congo 1996) and using for the first time suction anchorrnpiles in soft clay.