Field Development

McDermott announces successful floatover mating of Scarborough topsides, hull

May 15, 2025

Scarborough FPU will be one of the largest semisubmersible production platforms built in offshore history, McDermott says.

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McDermott

McDermott reports that it has successfully completed the fabrication, construction, and offshore floatover mating of the Scarborough floating production unit (FPU) topsides and hull structures for Woodside Energy.

The contract, awarded in 2021, followed the successful delivery of front-end engineering design work for the Scarborough FPU. The 2021 contract had called for engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning services for the Scarborough FPU.

McDermott provided services related to the design, fabrication, integration, transportation and installation of an approximately 30,000-metric-ton topsides and a 37,000-metric-ton hull structure, making it the largest floating production facility it has ever designed and built, and one of the largest semisubmersible production platforms built in offshore history.

Topsides fabrication was completed at McDermott’s joint venture yard, Qingdao McDermott Wuchuan, in Qingdao, China, while the hull was constructed by COSCO in its Qidong shipyard, also in China. The topsides have six deck levels; 169 core equipment units, including three gas turbine-driven export gas compressors and three main generators with waste heat recovery systems; more than 50,000 meters of piping; one million meters of cabling; 568 integrated subsystems and a battery energy storage system, supporting operational emissions reduction.

Earlier this month, both structures were transported offshore, and the topsides installed onto the hull via floatover off the coast of Dalian, China.

Following the successful floatover, the FPU arrived at CIMC’s Raffles yard in Yantai, China, for final integration works. From there, it is expected to sail away to Western Australia, where it will be moored at the Scarborough gas field approximately 375 kilometers offshore from the Burrup Peninsula.