Ivanhoe Energy and SBM Offshore formed a global strategic alliance to create floating, production, upgrading, storage and offloading vessels (FPUSO). The design, the companies say, will economically produce and upgrade heavy oil from offshore fields with crude oil quality down to 10° API gravity or lower. With engineering support from AMEC, the two companies completed a conceptual design of an FPUSO that will upgrade up to 60,000 b/d.
