MODEC awarded contract by Equinor to supply Brazil’s largest FPSO

MODEC has entered into a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) with Equinor Brasil Energia, a subsidiary of Equinor, to supply a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for the Bacalhau (formerly Carcará) field offshore Brazil.

MODEC was awarded a pre-front end engineering design (pre-FEED) contract for the FPSO in December 2018 and has now been selected as the turnkey contractor based upon its successful execution of the pre-FEED contract and its response to the subsequent invitation to tender (ITT).

This contract is based on a two-step award. The FEED and pre-investment have already commenced, with an option for the execution phase under a lump sum turnkey contract setup which includes engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) for the entire FPSO scopes.

Option for the contract is subject to Equinor’s planned investment decision for the Bacalhau project, due to be given in late 2020.

The FPSO vessel will be deployed at the Bacalhau field, Block BM-S-8, located in the giant pre-salt region of the Santos Basin some 185 kilometres off the coast of the municipality of Ilhabela in the state of São Paulo.

Equinor’s field partners are ExxonMobil (40 per cent) and Petrogal Brasil (20 per cent).

MODEC will be responsible for the design and construction of the FPSO, including topsides processing equipment as well as hull and marine systems. The FPSO vessel will be permanently moored at a water depth of approximately 2,050 metres and first oil production is planned in the 2023-2024 timeframe.

The FPSO will be the largest vessel of its kind ever delivered to Brazil. It will have a large topside designed to produce up to 220,000 barrels of crude oil per day, produce and inject up to 15 million standard cubic feet of associated gas per day and inject up to 200,000 barrels of seawater per day while its minimum storage capacity of crude oil will be two million barrels.

The FPSO will have a full double hull design, which has been developed to accommodate larger topsides and larger storage capacity than conventional very large crude carriers (VLCCs), with a longer design service life. The hull will be built by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Company (DSIC) in China.