CHINESE yard Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry has cut first steel for a floating production, storage and offloading vessel destined for the Petrobras-owned Parque das Baleias oil project offshore Brazil. The landmark operation for the Maria Quiteria FPSO took place at Cosco's Shanghai yard late last week soon after China's most populous city announced a partial reopening from a massive Covid-19 lockdown. The Cosco Shanghai yard was shut down for nearly a month after the pandemic hit China's largest commercial city. The first phase of the Parque das Baleias contract will focus on hull structure conversion, piping, electricity, ventilation, fitting out, painting and construction of living quarters and pipe racks. The second phase involves top-side-module integration and mechanic completion. The job is scheduled to take 24 months to complete. The Maria Quiteria will be converted from the 309,000-tonne very large crude carrier Hawk, formerly known as Apollonia, which Yinson bought from Neda Maritime Agency in 2019. The vessel was built by South Korea's Samsung Shipbuilding & Heavy Industries in 2003 and has a crude storage capacity of 2.2 million barrels. The vessel arrived at Cosco Shanghai in late January, with conversion work initially scheduled after Chinese New Year in mid-February.
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