North Sea's first FPSO ready for Brazil deployment

The North Sea's first floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO), the Petrojarl I, has been delivered to owner Teekay after a two and a half year project to make it ready for its next deployment. 

The Petrojarl 1, a Tentech 685 design vessel, delivered in 1986 by NKK in Japan, has worked across a long list of North Sea fields and is now set to work on its 14th field, Atlanta, offshore Brazil.

It will be working for a consortium led by Queiroz Galvão Exploração e Produção (QGEP). The field’s water depth, 1535m, will be the deepest in which the vessel has worked.

The post-salt Atlanta field, in the Santos Basin, is also a heavy crude oil field, estimated to contain about 190 MMboe recoverable, with a production life in excess of 15 years.

Petrojarl I will be used as an early production system (EPS) on the field, some 185km offshore Brazil, on a five-year contract.

Previous fields the vessel has worked on include Oseberg, Troll, Lyell, Fulmar, Balder, Fife, Fergus, Flora and Angus, Hudson, Blenheim, Kyle and, most recently, Glitne, in the Norwegian sector, from which it was removed in 2013.

Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam performed the vessel's redeployment overhaul. After extensive engineering (over 450,000 engineering hours), more than 50% of the process equipment was removed and replaced with new and additional equipment, required to treat heavy oil at the Atlanta field. 

Damen says the available deck space presented major challenges during engineering and execution of the work on board, which was done by Damen and its subcontractors. 

“The Petrojarl 1 project fits within the strategy of Damen to expand further into the repair and conversion of complex offshore vessels and operating units. The recent acquisition of the Damen Verolme Rotterdam yard (DVR), located in the Botlek area of the Port of Rotterdam and holding an extensive track record of successfully refurbished offshore vessels, further complements us in this ambition.” says Mark Witjens, Director with Damen Shiprepair & Conversion responsible for the project.

The FPSO spent 14 months in Dock no. 8 (300x50m) undergoing refurbishment of its marine systems, underwater hull, seawater system, crane booms, heating coils in the cargo tanks  and specialised steelworks in the upper and lower turret areas,  which needed to be completely revised and adapted to suit the 1500m deep mooring location. Simultaneously, new designed high quality, prefabricated equipment skids containing heating, cooling, separation, compression, boilers, centrifuges as well as a new E-house with electrical equipment were placed on board. Interconnecting piping and cabling was subsequently installed to complete the topsides and connect it to the remaining facilities. 

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