Commissioned by Bluewater Energy Services Vicoma participated in the conversion of an FPSO: a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading installation. The conversion is done on the Aoka Mizu. This is a vessel that will bring up oil on the Lancaster field in the North Sea for oil and gas company Hurricane Energy. The complete turret and several topsides skids are modified. These modifications must meet the production characteristics, conditions and regulations that a new offshore extraction site entails.
An FPSO basically functions as a complete oil production facility, but then at sea. Vicoma was asked to take care of the piping from the buoy to the topsides. A buoy is pulled in into which the production risers coming from the well are pulled. These are connected to the production headers that then connect the turret to the topsides via the swivel. This buoy is statically anchored to the bottom.
Small available space
Complicating matters is that there is a lot of piping to be done with large diameters and 3D radius bends in a relatively small available space. This should take into account aspects such as accessibility, safety, and maintenance. The Aoka Mizu was refitted at Dubai Drydocks and oil production has now started west of the Shetland Islands.
