Page 39 - Industrial plants

industrial players prioritize asset configurations that
reduce the environmental impact during operations
(like, for example, integrating sustainable energy
sources for plant power generation) aligning with
market requirements and stakeholders’ expectations.
In response to these growing concerns, in the last ten
years FPSOs (Floating Production Storage Offloading)
have emerged as the most cost-effective and flexible
technological solution to exploit reservoirs located in
remote or deep-water locations: investments in auxiliary
infrastructures (pipeline, in particular) are eliminated,
costs for construction and commissioning are reduced,
while scale economies may be achieved thanks to the
modular architecture of Topside process and auxiliary
systems, more easily replicable on projects with similar
characteristics.
“With growing concerns about
environmental sustainability and
uncertainty in the market, the
offshore industry is shifting towards
more sustainable and flexible models,
like FPSOs and NUI, to support time
to market and overall investments for
O&G operations

Furthermore, thanks to a higher mobility compared to
fixed offshore platforms, FPSOs can be easily
decommissioned and relocated or repurposed (after
the necessary upgrading of facilities and equipment),
strongly contributing to reduce the operators’
environmental impact.
An FPSO vessel is designed to receive, process, store,
and offload oil and gas from offshore fields. The vessel
is equipped with production facilities such as separators,
pumps, compressors, and other processing equipment
to separate and treat the hydrocarbons. The so
processed oil and gas are then stored in tanks on board
the FPSO until they are offloaded to shuttle tankers or
pipelines for transport to shore.
FPSOs are designed to be self-contained and capable
n their latest book “How big things get done”, of operating for extended periods without requiring a
Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner start their connection to shore; their structure is like a tanker
discussion from the outcomes of their research vessel, with a large Topside process facility.
carried out on more than 16.000 big projects, While the construction of the hull is dominantly executed
which reveals that just 8.5% of the sample in Asia due to the larger availability of proper yards and
Irespects the time and costs initial estimate, and reduced fabrication costs, the Topside facilities are still
only 0.5% succeeds in producing the expected largely supplied by international EPC contractors, who
benefits. leverages on an experienced international supply chain.
This trend that leads the course of megaprojects of the As per traditional offshore installation, the challenge for
Oil&Gas industry too, coupled with the growing the supply chain is still to combine high quality and
uncertainty of the market, causes the main End Users safety standard with a compact and light design;
and Operators to seek for solutions to enhance however, the execution strategy needs a more flexible
flexibility in project management and operation, in order approach: a modular design will regularly be the
to reduce risks and costs along the entire life cycle of standard for large and complex systems, like process
the asset. Together with flexibility, more and more or power generation units, dominating a large footprint

IndustrIal Plants - May 2023
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