Large FPSO headed for Girassol field off Angola

April 6, 2001
The world�s largest floating production, storage, and offloading unit is en route to Angola where it is expected to arrive at Girassol field in early July, contractors said Thursday. A joint venture between Bouygues Offshore and Stolt Offshore SA constructed the FPSO for TotalFinalElf SA.


HOUSTON, Apr. 6--The world�s largest floating production, storage, and offloading unit is en route to Angola where it is expected to arrive at Girassol field in early July, contractors said Thursday.

Mar Profundo Girassol, a joint venture between Bouygues Offshore and Stolt Offshore SA, constructed the FPSO under a $700 million engineering, procurement, construction, and installation contract with TotalFinalElf SA (OGJ, July 20, 1998, p. 42).

The partners completed construction of the topsides in 21 months. The 50,000-tonne hull supports 24,000-tonne of topsides. The FPSO left Korea on Mar. 30.

The Girassol FPSO will be moored in a water depth of 1,400 m. First oil is slated to flow by the end of 2001. The FPSO has a production capacity of 200,000 b/d and a 2 million bbl storage capacity.

It also features the largest desulphatation unit in the world, allowing treatment of 400,000 b/d of seawater for water injection.

TotalFinaElf unit Elf Aquitaine discovered Girassol in 1996. TotalFinalElf is operator of Block 17 with 40% interest. Its partners are ExxonMobil Corp., 20%; BP PLC, 16.67%; Statoil 13.33%, and Norsk Hydro AS 10%.