FPSO awards are set to recover to seven vessels next year – Saudi Gazette

FPSO awards are set to recover to seven vessels next year – Saudi Gazette

OSLO “” Hit by the second industry downturn in five years, global awards for floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels will likely be limited to a single unit in 2020, Rystad Energy believes, as exploration and production firms slash budgets and activity. Similar to the previous downturn, awards are set to recover next year, with seven projects likely to be sanctioned.

Modec won the only contract so far awarded in 2020 and will supply a new-built FPSO for Woodside's Sangomar development in Senegal. The vessel, which will be the first FPSO to operate in Senegal, will be supplied on a turnkey basis and feature topsides capable of handling 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil and 130 million cubic feet per day (cfd) of gas. Rystad Energy estimates that the total greenfield capex for Sangomar phase 1 will be around $4.2 billion.

For the remainder of 2020, we don't expect to see any new FPSO contracts being awarded. Over the last 10 years, only 2016 saw a lower level of activity when not a single FPSO contract was awarded. However, from 2016 activity quickly rebounded with 27 awards in the three-year period from 2017 to 2019.

"This time too, we expect to