Sembcorp delivers Culzean FSO vessel

May 10, 2018
Sembcorp Marine has completed the FSO Ailsa at its Tuas Boulevard Yard.

Offshore staff

SINGAPORESembcorp Marine has completed the FSO Ailsa at its Tuas Boulevard Yard.

Ailsa, the world’s first floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel with a 40-year hull lifespan, will set sail next month for the Culzean gas field in the UK central North Sea.

The vessel will enter service with a hull designed to have twice the average hull fatigue lifespan of other newbuild FSOs, as verified by marine assurance company DNV GL. A longer hull fatigue life enables ships to withstand harsher and more extreme environmental conditions, such as rogue waves, corrosion, large ambient temperature variation and thunderstorms.

Equipped with a 430,000-bbl condensate storage capacity, the FSOAilsa will operate 25 years continuously without drydocking.

This is Sembcorp Marine’s first FSO newbuild project. The vessel was constructed over 22 months with a zero Lost Time Incidents record. The group designed this vessel in-house, particularly leveraging a proprietary hull design from its subsidiary LMG Marin.

Sateesh Dev, president and CEO ofMODEC Offshore Production Systems (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., said: “FSO Ailsa, the 46th floating unit MODEC has accomplished for the offshore oil and gas production industry, represents a significant milestone for us as it is the first one we have built for the North Sea oil and gas sector.

“We are honored to play a key role in the Culzean project with this newbuild FSO, which has been exciting and challenging. The successful delivery of the FSO was largely attributed to the close and strong cooperation between our long-term partner Sembcorp Marine and us. We congratulate Sembcorp Marine for completing the vessel successfully.”

05/10/2018