The Business of
FPSOs, Shuttle Tankers and Peter Lovie

Devon Energy Corporation

At Devon Energy Corporation Peter was in the Project Support Office, mostly related to the company’s Lower Tertiary business in ultra deepwater developments, for future operated developments and for non-op developments.

  • Identified how significant benefits could be secured in the bid process for the first FPSO in GoM, gained management endorsement then partner approval, resulted in a clear dollar saving to the partners in nine figures;
  • Identified the need for - and managed - studies on adapting well proven North Sea standards as a policy for (a) shuttle tanker safety for GoM, and (b) simulation of operational uptime in GoM to show practicality and economics;
  • Vetted the shuttle tankers contracts and the FPSO lease contract dealings for Cascade/Chinook;
  • Throughout the time with Devon, served as Floating Systems advisor on all deepwater teams for GoM: Devon Deepwater Development (3D) which was a Devon internal project, Cascade which was 50:50 Devon with Petrobras as operator, Jack St. Malo (Chevron operated) and Kaskida (BP operated). Participated in related project Decision Analysis workshops as needed.
  • Over a two year period, formulated a business model for use of shuttle tankers in GoM for Lower Tertiary developments, applied to Devon’s developments, then for Jack St. Malo (Chevron operated, Devon largest partner after Chevron). Validated the projections through a workshop series held with each of three shuttle tanker providers.
  • Developed a methodology for comparing export economics for such developments for (i) pipeline, (ii) shuttle tanker, (iii) storage vessel plus shuttle tanker, (iv) Hiload. Devon approved publishing the methodology at DOT in February 2009 to help stimulate availability of future export options. Projections indicated the potential for ten figure dollar savings over the life of a large Lower Tertiary development. The DOT paper can be found at: www.lovie.org/pdf/125_DOT138_3Feb09.pdf.
  • Identified the need for - and managed - two ground breaking studies relating to Lower Tertiary developments: (a) Expandable FPSOs, and (b) Major Revenue Interruption Risks.
  • Identified the need for a Marine Safety Policy in Devon for both ongoing overseas operations and the high profile first use of FPSO/shuttle tanker operation in GoM at Cascade.
  • Conducted meetings with industry experts and counterparts in supermajors, secured management support for adoption of a Marine Safety Policy for execution by mid 2010.