1. THE FPSO GIANT IN THE
CAMPOS BASIN
At a price of 7 billion DKK the Maersl< Peregrina is the largest FPSO project
of the company. First oil from the Statoil-field off Brazil will soon gush into
its tanks.
At a speed of almost 13 knots Maersk
Peregrina on December 12th passed
Cape Town, South Africa, half a day
before planned - a punctuality cha-
racteristic for the four long years of
activities prior to first oil from Statoil's
Peregrina field off the coast of Brazil.
Just before Christmas the 332 m long
vessel arrived at Rio de janeiro where
it was handed over to South Atlantic
Holding owned by Statoil and a Chinese
partner. After passing the formalities
the vessel just after New Year was
ready for transiting the 85 km to the
field where tugs secured it in the posi-
tion between the two platforms of the
field until it was tied up to its floating
anchor buoy.
Pipelines to wells and cables to the
platforms were attached, and then eve-
rything was ready for testing the pro-
duction of oil from the first well. Maersk
Peregrina now is placed in its perma-
nent position ready to produce oil. And
the highly developed systems of the
vessel will meet a lot of challenges.
"Any oil production system is designed
for just the type of oil and gas it is to
produce. That goes for Maersk Peregrina,
too. It is known that the field has so
little gas that it is impossible to use gas
turbines for production of electricity,
so we use oil fired boilers to produce
the three times 2.q megawatt needed
for the onboard power plant to operate
pumps and the rest of the equipment,"
explains Per Aae Staunstrup, Technical
Director of Maersk FPSO (Floating
Production Storage and Offloading).
Heavy oil is challenging
While so much electricity will be avail-
able that it can be exported to run
the two wellhead platforms of the
Peregrina, too, production of oil is quite
another challenge. The high-viscosity
oil having an API of 1.q compared to the
normal 30-37 can only be separated
from gas, sand and water by applying
a high temperature. Consequently, 6o
degrees warm oil on arrival is steamed
to 130-150 degrees for the separation
process. When later piped to the stor-
age tanks temperature is maintained
at 65 degrees for the shuttle tanker to
ship it to the refineries along the coast.
"Maersk Peregrina is a technically
seen complex and highly optimized unit,
but it is pioneering production of heavy
oil, so there will be more vessels of this
type."
In deeper waters, too
The FPSO vessel is planned to produce
10o,ooo barrels of crude per day, and
as the latest Statoil assessment calls for
Technical Director
Per Aae Staunstrup,
Maersk FPSO: "Maersk
Peregrina is a pioneer in
production of heavy oil".
the Peregrina field containing between
300 and 6oo million barrels of oil there
is work for quite some time. During
phase one 37 wells are to be drilled of
which 7 are for water injection.
In contrast to a number of other oil
fields offthe coast of Brazil the Peregrina
is situated in rather shallow waters -
only 100 m deep. Close-by the water
depth is about 1,500 m thereby plac-
ing other requirements to anchoring of
FPSOs being the preferred means for
production in Brazil.
"It looks as if there is an increasing
interest in FPSOs for production tech-
nology. Production of oil and gas takes
place in increasingly deeper waters
and far from the pipeline infrastruc-
ture - and heavy oils simply cannot
flow through pipelines. A production
plant based on one's own tanker is not
a technological wonder, but an attrac-
tive solution, so we are keeping an eye
on the market to see what goes on
in areas like the Gulf of Mexico, West
Africa, West of Shetlands and Brazil
being the largest market."
Nordic partnership
Statoil, for the first time moving out-
side the North Sea by operating the
Peregrina, for many years has been
co-operating with Maersk Oil in drill-
ing as well as production, but mainly in
the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.
Both Statoil and Maersk Oil demand
much of themselves and their partners
especially when talking safety and pro-
tection of the environment. Successful
production at the Peregrina will cement
this co-operation and provide Maersk
FPSO with valuable references.
"There are few large players in the
FPSO-market, and we belong to the
upper end of the middle group," states
Per Staunstrup. "We provide solutions
to the complex part of the market ask-
ing for a high level of quality, safety
and environment protection. We go for
challenging areas like high gas rates or
The Maersk Peregrina
The new FPSO for Statoil's Peregrina field 85 km off Rio de janeiro on the Brazilian
coast is number six in the Maersk FPSO fleet. Three FPSOs, the Maersk Curlew,
North Sea Producer and the Maersk Inspirer, are operating in the North Sea, while an
FGSO IFloating Gas Storage and Offloading). Nkossa II, is operating off the coast of
Congo in West Africa. The last one, Maersk Ngujima-Yin, is operation off the coast of
Australia.
The 332 m long 276,ooo dwt FPSO is built at Keppel Shipyard in Singapore having
American McDermott International Inc. as its second major contractor. A total invest-
ment of more than seven billion DKK required to re-build the tanker, Maersk Nova, to
a highly specialized FPSO, and only 10% remains of the original tanker.
Maersk Peregrina is expected to produce first oil for Statoil on a 15 years contract
starting first quarter this year. Initially production is expected to amount to wo,ooo
barrels/day. The tanks of the former VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier) have a capacity
of 1.6 million barrels of crude making the vessel one of the largest FPSOs not being
directly operated by an oil company. The crew consists of 100 men.
heavy oil. That is why we try to get into
markets like Norway, the UK, Canada
and Australia, too."
Finished work
The Peregrina FPSO project till now is
the most expensive project undertaken
by Maersk FPSO. It involved some so-6o
Maersk engineers in Copenhagen,
Houston, Oslo and other offices - as
well as sub-contractors - during the
four years period from layout/concept
design till preparing the vessel for its
3li days journey from Keppel Shipyard
in Singapore to its first destination in
Rio. Soon they can report the work
being finished as the hot oil is gush-
ing through the process plant onboard
Maersk Peregrina.
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