Norway’s Aibel has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) for topside procurement and fabrication of modules for a deepwater Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel destined for the Franco field offshore Brazil.

The company said it had signed the LoI with Estaleiros do Brasil (EBR), a joint venture between Japan’s Toyo Engineering and Brazilian engineering company SoG – Oleo e Gas, for the P-74 floater. The FPSO is scheduled for deployment on the first phase development of the giant Franco oil field, which is operated by Petrobras, in 2016.

The FPSO will be equipped to produce 150,000 b/d of oil and 247.2 MMcf/d (7 MMcm/d) of gas. In May, EBR was awarded the contract by Petrobras to install topside units for
the P-74 FPSO.

Aibel will build a total of five modules for the FPSO, with an overall weight of 4,750 tons. The company and its sub-contractors will take approximately 1.2 million manhours to complete the project, it added. Aibel has already started work on the project at its offices in Singapore and Thailand, with first steel planned to be cut in October and the final module to be loaded out by the end of August 2014.