Sembcorp Marine completes FSO with 40-year hull lifespan 

Singapore’s Sembcorp Marine has completed FSO Ailsa, the world’s first floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel with a 40-year hull lifespan.

Scheduled to set sail next month for the Culzean gas field in the UK North Sea, FSO Ailsa was built over 22 months at Sembmarine’s Tuas Boulevard Yard for MODEC.

FSO Ailsa will enter service with a hull designed to have twice the average hull fatigue lifespan of other newbuild FSOs, as verified by marine assurance company DNV GL. 

A longer hull fatigue life enables ships to withstand harsher and more extreme environmental conditions, such as rogue waves, corrosion, large ambient temperature variation and thunderstorms. 

Equipped with a 430,000-barrel condensate storage capacity, FSO Ailsa also has a 25-year continuous operability without drydocking and full compliance with strict UK safety regulations for harsh-environment operations in the Culzean field.