FLOATING PRODUCTION SYSTEMS AS A PANACEA TO CLEAN ENERGY AND SAFER MARITIME OPERATIONS By Adesina Adegbie, PhD Director Marine Geology/Geophysics Department Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research, Victoria Island, Lagos

Introduction Floating Production Systems (FPS) Advantages of FPS Environmental Impacts Conclusion

Introduction

FPS: FPSO and FSO systems today have become the primary method for many offshore oil and gas producing regions around the world. FPSOs have been serving the offshore oil and gas industry for nearly 30 years. They have proved to be safe and economical Over the years, advanced mooring systems as well as advancements in subsea equipment have made FPSO/FSOs useful in deeper and rougher waters. Currently, approximately 160 FPSOs and 100 FSOs are in operation worldwide.

Recent developments in LNG industry require relocation of conventional LNG processing trains into the sea to unlock remote, smaller gas fields that would not be economical to develop otherwise, reduce capital expenses, and impact to environment. Emerging new type of FLNG facilities will be used.

As of August 2015, there are more than 277 Floating Production Units in use around the world, of which 62% are FPSOs. Largest User of them is Petrobrás as of January 2015

Floating Production Systems (FPS)

A floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons, and for the storage of oil. A FPSO vessel is designed to receive hydrocarbons produced by itself or from nearby platforms or subsea template, process them, and store oil until it can be offloaded onto a tanker or, pipeline

Recent developments in LNG industry require relocation of conventional LNG processing trains into the sea to unlock remote, smaller gas fields that would not be economical to develop otherwise, reduce capital expenses, and impact to environment. Emerging new type of FLNG facilities will be used. Unlike FPSO's apart of gas production, storage and offloading, they will also allow full scale deep processing, same as onshore LNG plant has to offer

FPSOs are preferred in frontier offshore regions as they are easy to install, and do not require a local pipeline infrastructure to export oil. FPSOs can be a conversion of an oil tanker or can be a vessel built specially for the application. A vessel used only to store oil (without processing it) is referred to as a floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel.

The key components of an FPSO are: 1) The vessel itself, which may be a new build or, more usually, a tanker conversion; 2) The mooring system, which is based on patented technologies and comprise a promising niche market; 3) The process plant, whose configuration will depend largely on reservoir characteristics and environmental factors; water and/or gas injection and gas-lift facilities are commonly included  

Advantages of FPS

Advantages of FPSOs  Early production  Easy to remove and reuse.  Reduced upfront investment.  Can be used in any water depth.  Abandonment costs are less than for fixed platforms.  Retained value because they can be relocated to other fields.  Earlier cash flow because they are faster to develop than fixed platforms.

Advantages of FPSOs Storage and offloading vessels are particularly effective in remote or deep water locations, where seabed pipelines are not cost effective. Eliminates the need to lay expensive long-distance pipelines from the processing facility to an onshore terminal. This can provide an economically attractive solution for smaller oil fields, which can be exhausted in a few years and do not justify the expense of installing a pipeline.

Advantages of FPSOs Furthermore, once the field is depleted, the FPSO can be moved to a new location

EXAMPLE OF FPSO DIAGRAM FSO: Floating Storage and Offloading. FPSO: Floating Production,  Storage and Offloading. FDPSO: Floating, Drilling and Production, Storage and Offloading. FSRU: Floating Storage  Regasification Unit.

Environmental Impacts

Oil production worldwide has been synonymous with environmental damage. Most if not all oil producing States have one or more environmental problems/issues

Human error is widely acknowledged as the major cause of quality, production, and safety risks in many industries. It’s unlikely that human error will ever be completely prevented, there is growing recognition that many human performance problems stem from a failure within organizations to develop an effective policy for managing human reliability. Human errors begin during the design stage, extending beyond process and workplace design, into construction and continuing into the design of management systems for operations and maintenance. Such systems include management and training policies and procedural development and standard operating procedure development.

Most Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) found that FPSO systems do not pose a greater threat to the environment than do currently accepted development and production systems, given that proper mitigation measures, keyed to the specific proposed operations and location, are applied. Potential impacts from routine operations of FPSO’s are similar to those from currently accepted deepwater production systems, with the exception of potential sulfurdioxide- related, air quality impacts in some fields.

Emissions from shuttle tankers idling during offloading could cause air quality exceedances. The risk of accidental oil spill from FPSO systems and related shuttle tankering are comparable to the risk of oil spills from currently accepted deepwater production systems and related oil pipelines. The incremental increase to cumulative impacts from the use of shuttle tankers in support of FPSO operations will be insignificant when added to increased tanker traffic related to increasing oil imports.

EXAMPLES Since the exploration and subsequent production of oil, nine whales have been washed ashore in Ghana’s coastal Western Region: Jomoro and Ellembelle Districts There are no specific research which link the death of the whales to the oil extraction, but whale deaths have been notably rampant since production began in 2009. Dead whale in the coast of Ghana

EXAMPLES The powerful lights attract fish into a "safety zone" that local fishermen cannot enter, and some fish migrate into the zones where the fishermen cannot reach fishermen complain of health problems associated with excessive gas flaring. Some fishermen have been losing their nets to the supply vessels that traverse the waters to and from the FPSO. The Kwame Nkrumah FPSO facility

EXAMPLES The spill at the field occurred on December 20, 2011, during a routine operation to transfer crude oil from Bonga’s FPSO vessel to an oil tanker.  An investigation by a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), confirmed that a leak occurred in a flexible export line linking the FPSO to the tanker. After the leak, Shell estimated that around 40,000 barrels of oil had leaked in total. The Bonga FPSO Unit

EXAMPLES (BONGA FIELD) Affected at least 168,000 victims in 350 communities in Delta and Bayelsa. victims were fishermen House of Representatives and National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency recommended a compensation of $3.96 billion for victims of the incident. Damaged Mangrove and Ecosystem

Conclusion

Floating Production Storage and Off-loading (FPSO) vessels have become increasingly popular concepts in recent years, especially on marginal or small fields and are cheap (especially conversions of existing tankers). FPSOs are very flexible; they’ve been used in thousands of meters of water offshore Brazil to a few meters of water offshore Nigeria. Nowadays the most used options how to moored FPSO to the seabed are spread moored (in calm waters) or moored with a turret, allowing the vessel to weather vane, in harsher waters. All those systems have their own pros and cons and there are many certificated mooring manufacturers who offers the best quality services.

No serious accidents with consequences to personnel have occurred on most FPSOs, but several near misses and less serious accidents have demonstrated a potential for serious accidents. These incidents have also demonstrated that operational safety control is important. It can therefore be concluded that efforts to control operational failures are important for FPSOs in particular, probably also for Floating Production Systems in general. This implies that systematic efforts in order to manage and control operational safety aspects are important.

Risk assessment studies are required as basis for the identification of actions that may be used to control operational safety aspects.

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