Conversion work begins on future Woodside FPSO

A 323-metre very large crude carrier (VLCC) owned by Australia’s Woodside Energy recently arrived in China to begin undergoing conversion works that will see it rebuilt as a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.

The conversion work will be carried out over a two-year period at COSCO Dalian Shipyard with the cooperation of Japanese engineering firm MODEC.

Once completed, the FPSO will be deployed by Woodside at the Sangomar oil and gas field offshore Senegal. It will be named Léopold Sédar Senghor in honour of Senegal’s first president.

Woodside said that other shipyards in China will be used to complete the work necessary for the vessel’s conversion to an FPSO though much of the work will still be performed by COSCO.

The Sangomar field is located 100 kilometres south of Dakar, Senegal’s capital, and will be the country’s first offshore oil development. First oil production from the FPSO is targeted in 2023, with the Sangomar Field Development Phase One targeting approximately 230 million barrels of crude oil, at an initial peak rate of 100,000 barrels per day.