TechnipFMC’s flagship deepwater pipelay and construction vessel is embarking on a large-scale subsea project laying pipeline on the Equinor-operated Peregrino Phase 2 Project in the Campos Basin offshore Brazil.
According to TechnipFMC, Deep Blue will install rigid and flexible pipelines as well as pipeline end termination (PLET) structures in water depths of 100 meters about 85 kilometers off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. The second phase will add estimated resources of 273 million barrels of recoverable oil to the Peregrino field.
The Deep Blue will participate in an installation phase that will take place across two campaigns. Mobilizations for these will be carried out at the Evanton Spoolbase in North Scotland. Another vessel from TechnipFMC’s fleet will also take part in the project at a later date, the company said.
The Peregrino field consists of two fixed wellhead platforms and a floating production storage and offloading unit (FPSO). A third fixed wellhead platform, WHP-C, is now being added to the field under the $3.5 billion Phase 2 development plan, which involves increasing the number of production wells in the new Peregrino southwest area by drilling 15 oil producers and six water injectors. First oil is planned at the end of 2020.
After 18 years as the flagship of TechnipFMC’s pipelay and subsea construction fleet, the Deep Blue continues to rack up offshore achievements across the globe. As a deepwater pipelay and subsea construction vessel, the Deep Blue uses the reel-lay and J-lay pipelay methods to install all types of risers and flowlines and can lay umbilicals and flexibles from below-deck carousels.
The vessel’s efforts on Peregrino Phase 2 comes after the vessel achieved a major subsea milestone earlier this year with the installation of 500 kilometers of reeled pipe-in-pipe technology in the Gulf of Mexico. The Deep Blue reached this landmark during a subsea tieback project in the southern portion of the Green Canyon protraction area.
In all, TechnipFMC vessels have laid more than 1,100 kilometers of reeled pipe-in-pipe technology, the company said.