With 31% of the world's hydrocarbons produced daily offshore, that percentage is expected to rise through 2020 and beyond. This means operators need to be increasingly flexible in their development options. Most of the expected increase in production will come from deep and ultra-deep water. As a result, companies involved in the floating production business - and specifically shipshape FPSO vessels - are in an increasingly healthy position. The economics of an FPSO unit are pretty positive. With deepwater projects having a development breakeven cost of anywhere between US $30/bbl and $80/bbl, even the latest large Generation 3 FPSO vessel (which comes complete with facilities including complex topsides of at least 20,000 metric tons [mt], plus considerable gas processing and CO_2 recovery and rein-jection capabilities) has production costs that come out at below $5/bbl, according to SBM Offshore. Not bad with an oil price of more than $100/bbl.
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