Shell in the UK has long been mulling the redevelopment of its PENGUINS (SEN, 31/17) field which is currently a subsea tieback into the Brent complex. With its host facility due to be abandoned before the reserves run out, a new plan is required. An fpso has been the preferred option and SEN heard that it is having a long hard look at a Sevan circular unit, although the price tag may make such a development a bit marginal.

The full development of Eni’s 15/06 (31/21) in Angola is several years away - West Hub is onstream, but East Hub is not due in production until next year - but the Italian operator is taking a long view of recovery on the field. SEN understands that it is looking at a retrofit seabed pumping scheme which suggests it is in talks with OneSubsea - who else is there?

Sevan Marine offshoot Kanfa has won a $50mn EPC contract for four process modules for the Yinson Production fpso which will be will be deployed at the Eni-operated OFFSHORE CAPE THREE POINTS (31/22) project off Ghana. Fabrication is expected to take 15 months.

The fpso will be based on the conversion of the Yinson Genesis, a recently acquired vlcc. It will have oil processing capacity of 58,000b/d, gas injection capacity of 4.2mcm/d and a maximum future gas-export capacity of 6mcm/d with storage capacity of 1.7mmbbl.

The fpso, with a total topsides weight of almost 15,000t, will be spread-moored in around 1,000m.

Total’s $15bn EGINA (31/20) deepwater fpso development in Nigeria will result in over $1bn being spent in developing the local content capability in the country, according to the Nigerian Content Development Board...Hyundai has handed over the 64,000t GOLIAT (31/16) cyclindrical fpso, the largest of type built to date, to operator Eni Norge for tow to Norway...The first of Logitel’s Sevan-deesigned cylindrical FLOATING ACCOMMODATION UNITS has been delivered by Cosco to Teekay Offshore.

Two of the industry’s main fpso contractors are taking a somewhat different view of the market while reporting their annual results.

BW OFFSHORE reported EBITDA up 17% to $520mn in 2014, although this was somewhat skewed by a one-off payment by Murphy to cover the early termination of its contract for the fpso Azurite which was working on the eponymous field in the Congo.

It said that it saw the short-term market for leased production ships as ‘currently uncertain’ - a pretty honest assessment - although it still saw ‘outsourcing of production’ to be cost effective for operators.

More optimistic is TEEKAY OFFSHORE PARTNERS even though it saw ‘distributable cashflow’ - it is a different sort of corporate beast so it has alternative reporting and targets - down $7mn to $50mn in Q4. With several new Brazilians contracts in hand - for Petrobras Libra (31/21) and QGEP Atlanta (31/19), it sees the long term deepwater fundamentals as ‘strong’.

Meanwhile, the biggest floater player SBM OFFSHORE had a year that can best be described as patchy. While consolidated net income rose substantially - nearly tripling to $652mn - income attributable to shareholders fell 7% to $349mn, order intake fell by nearly two-thirds from 2013 to $3.1bn and net debt rose 40% to $4.775bn.

Royal Boskalis Westminster subsidiary Dockwise has taken possession of a new semi heavy transport vessel WHITE MARLIN which will be used to transport drilling units...DeepOcean is to provide Tullow with a multi-purpose construction vessel REM FORZA to provide inspection, survey and construction services in Ghana...Huisman will manufacture and install 400t knuckle boom cranes to MAERSK SUPPLY SERVICE for its two new subsea support vessels (31/11).

Offshore