Large Capacity Screw Compressor for FPSO & Platform
Philip Stevenson
Regional Manager, Singapore Office,
Tanabe Pneumatic Machinery Co. , Ltd.
1. Oil Industry & Marine Industry
The activities of the Oil & Gas Industry and the Marine Industry have long been interconnected. Shipbuilding companies not only build tankers and gas carriers but frequently have within their groups specialised heavy industry divisions, who also fabricate and build refineries. When oil exploration and production activities moved off-shore then the natural development was for the shipyards to build these platforms. Most of the installed equipment continued to be very similar to that used at the on-shore facilities. With the advent of FPSO systems however this has changed.
2. What is an FPSO?
FPSO vessels are large storage ships (tankers) with production I processing equipment installed upon the deck. They are designed to be positioned in a stationary location, above an oil field. Many of these vessels have very restricted motive power, thrusters only, to help maintain position rather than for propulsion. Below decks they are very much like a normal ship (many vessels in service today began life as tankers).
On deck however there is a plethora of equipment for production and processing. Turbines, and pumps for injecting water into the wells to facilitate oil extraction, equipment to separate oil, water & gas, high volume natural gas compressors and so on. The combination of equipment varies according to the characteristics of the field.
The oil and gas is extracted and preliminary processing completed on board.
The product is then stored until it is off-loaded to a shuttle tanker which delivers it to the refinery. Hence the name FPSO, Floating Process, Storage & Off-loading vessel.
3. Why use FPSO Vessels?
The idea behind this concept is that such vessels can be placed on station quickly and relatively cheaply (by comparison to a platform), permitting the exploitation of marginal fields. At the end of the field's working life the vessel can be moved and reused elsewhere. Also there are no disposal problems such as those experienced by Shell in 1995.
