The silo-tank floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) for harsh weather environments was conceived because current designs have operating issues during extreme weather conditions. All FPSOs currently operating in harsh weather have experienced either green water on deck, hull slamming or fatigue cracking of the hull. The result of these phenomena is limited use, downtime for repairs or extremely hazardous conditions for crewmembers. Limited use can include reduced storage, which leads to sloshing in the tanks, or reduced crew access to certain areas of the vessel during harsh weather periods. An FPSO is expected to stay in the field for the life of a project, so interruption for repairs can be very costly. Sea of Solutions and IGL, oil and gas consultants, set out to design an FPSO that reduces the likelihood of these events in harsh weather. The proposed design has a series of silo tanks, independent of the hull, which are always full of liquid, a combination of seawater and crude. The result is an FPSO with constant draft, high freeboard, and reduced topside motion.
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