SBM Offshore, the Netherlands, has announced that it commenced processing production from the Thunder Hawk Field in Mississippi Canyon Block 734 on July 8.
The Thunder Hawk field is located 240km south-east of New Orleans, in a water depth of 1,745 metres.
The 'Thunder Hawk' floating production unit (FPU) has process capacity of 45,000 bpd of oil and 70mmcf/d of gas and is designed to serve as an area wide "hub" for other fields. The produced oil and gas will be exported via steel catenary risers into existing pipelines.
SBM Offshore designed and constructed the hull as well as the process facilities in house and was also responsible for installation of the FPU. The hull was fabricated in Singapore, while the topsides facilities were fabricated and integrated on to the hull in south Texas.