FPSO vessel arrives at Brasa shipyard

SBM Offshore’s Brasa shipyard has celebrated the arrival of its FPSO Cidade de Maricá, a carbon-copy of the FPSO Cidade de Ilhabela. The vessel, produced for Petrobas, berthed safely at the Niteroi-Rio based yard on 9 July 2015 after completing a 19 678 km voyage from China and arriving in Brazilian waters in mid-June.

FPSO Cidade de Maricá is one of two duplicate FPSOs being constructed utilising the FPSO Cidade de Ilhabela blueprint. At 2140 m and a capacity of 150 000 bpd of oil, the FPSO model is the deepest in SBM’s operating fleet.

Conversion work on the hull and some module integration was completed in China before the FPSO set sail for Brazil in April 2015. Cidade de Maricá is the second FPSO to moor and be integrated at Brasa shipyard since it opened in 2012.

The FPSOs are owned and will be operated by a joint venture owned by affiliated companies of SBM Offshore, Mitsubishi Corporation, Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, and Queiroz Galvão Óleo e Gás S.A. in which SBM Offshore shareholding is 56%.

The third pre-salt FPSO of four that SBM is providing to Petrobras

SBM Offshore’s Chief Operating Officer, Philippe Barril commented: “We are happy with the progress to date on Maricá and we look forward to the delivery of the FPSO to our client once the Brasa scope is completed. We expect her to follow in the footsteps of her mother ship FPSO Cidade de Ilhabela, which has been successfully producing offshore Brazil for eight months and is an example of the world-class standards to which SBM aspires. All our teams are working hard to achieve our delivery target for Maricá, the third pre-salt FPSO in the series of four that SBM is providing to Petrobras.”

Integration of the hull and topsides will take place at Brasa

Project Manager, Martijn Kleijn, said: “Integration of the hull and topsides will take place at Brasa, where some of the modules have also been fabricated. The yard is ready to begin the module-lifting phase using the yard’s Pelicano-1 barge crane. Additional modules were constructed and delivered by EBSE, a Rio yard that SBM works closely with as part of its development of local content solutions.”

Adapted from press release by David Bizley

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/offshore-and-subsea/13072015/fpso-vessel-arrives-at-brasa-shipyard/