Annual Report 2010 - SBM Offshore

Report of the Board of Management
that these technologies will play an increasing role in
the development of the offshore oil and gas industry,
and thus in the growth of the Company.
Offshore Production of LNG
The FLNG presents a cost-effective means to develop
stranded gas reserves, and may allow the industry to
reassess the way it values gas assets. The Company
is committed to securing, together with partners, a
contract for the supply of an FLNG vessel at the earliest
opportunity.
The FLNG is typically a fully stand-alone system for
gas field development, with extensive pre-treatment
facilities able to receive raw gases and well fluids,
similar to the majority of oil-producing FPSOs operating
today. The hull, a major critical component of the
FLNG, will be fitted with tanks for storage of the LNG
and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). The hull further
supports all required topsides facilities and utility systems
required for the processing of the incoming field
gas stream. The FLNG will therefore be able to treat,
fractionate, liquefy, store and then export LNG, associated
LPGs and condensate by-products.
The Company’s development efforts have been deliberately
concentrated on an FLNG with ‘medium-size’
LNG production capacities, typically around 2.5 million
tonnes per year (mtpa) of LNG, as this presents
the best balance in terms of technical and commercial
viability. The current list of FLNG project opportunities
predominantly require LNG production capacities in
the range 2-3 mtpa, for the development of a gas field
in excess of 1.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of recoverable
gas reserves.
The Company finalised the basic design of its generic
medium-size FLNG facility in 2008. With partners, SBM
Offshore has developed a detailed project execution
plan, and shipyard building slots for the hull have been
secured. The development effort resulted in a comprehensive
‘generic FLNG design toolbox’ in 2009. The
established toolbox approach allows easy and rapid
adaptation of the FLNG design to the specific requirements
of offshore gas projects, whilst maintaining
control of the safety aspects, execution risks and cost
for each particular case.
70 SBM Offshore – Annual Report 2010
It is envisaged that this generic approach will allow a
series of FLNGs to be developed in a relatively short
time, helping to reduce schedules and costs, and
hence also improve the economics of subsequent projects.
Working in partnership with vessel manufacturers
and cryogenic technology companies, extensive marketing
efforts continued throughout 2010 to all major
potential clients. As a consequence, the Company, in
consortium with partners, was awarded a FEED study
by Petrobras for an FLNG, which will operate as a gasgathering
station for several oil FPSOs in the Santos
Basin pre-salt fields offshore Brazil.
Offshore LNG Offloading
Currently, open sea ship-to-ship LNG transfer is only
possible in benign environmental conditions in a sideby-side
configuration. Offloading operations from LNG
FPSOs or loading of FSRUs outside of these areas
favours the use of tankers mooring in tandem to the
FPSO, as commonly used for the offloading of oil from
FPSOs to oil tankers, as it improves both the safety and
the up-time availability. In several key target areas for
FLNG projects around the world, tandem offloading is
mandatory thus requiring safe, efficient LNG transfer to
an LNG tanker.
The Company therefore initiated a programme to
develop a cryogenic hose to be used in a floating or
submerged configuration for LNG transfer. The hose
design is based on a patented hose-in-hose system,
which combines two proven hose technologies.
The design is comprised of a standard outer marine
hose with a proven inner-composite LNG hose. The
cavity between the hoses is filled with insulating materials
with thermal and elastic properties over the full
range of ambient to cryogenic temperatures. Having
proven the feasibility of the concept with an 8-inch
internal diameter (ID) hose, an 18-inch ID hose has now
completed a full qualification and certification program.
Interest in the COOL TM Hose remains strong amongst
all the major potential clients.
Offshore LNG Regasification
The Company maintains in its portfolio a range of
generic FSRU concepts, developed for a wide range of
LNG storage and regasification requirements, to meet
the higher capacity range of gas-supply contracts.