The Business of
FPSOs, Shuttle Tankers and Peter Lovie

FPSO Congress 2009

More than 200 people from all parts of the world attended the 10th Annual FPSO Congress in Singapore

More than 200 people from all parts of the world attended the 10th Annual FPSO Congress in Singapore

The discussion panel on Day 1 

image of speakersLeft to right: Hasan Basma, CEO of Bumi Armada in Kuala Lumpur; Ming Yao Lee, Team Manager, Offshore & Marine Structures with Chevron in Houston; Julian Callanan of Infield Systems in London; Sven Larsen, CFO of Prosafe in Singapore and Peter Lovie from Houston

Taking a break

Peter Lovie on left, with Daniel Chen, marketing manager for IQPC
Peter Lovie on left, with Daniel Chen, marketing manager for IQPC
 

Bluewater alumni compare notes

esse Van de Korput, now SVP at Bumi Armada in Kuala Lumpur; Peter Lovie from Houston
Jesse Van de Korput, now SVP at Bumi Armada in Kuala Lumpur; Peter Lovie from Houston

Dynamically Positioned FPSOs 

Peter Lovie on the long history behind the first FPSO in US GoM and what may be ahead
Peter Lovie delivers a double length technical and commercial presentation on this niche market

FPSOs in GoM - the 14 year journey

Peter Lovie on the long history behind the first FPSO in US GoM and what may be aheadPeter Lovie on the long history behind the first FPSO in US GoM and what may be ahead

Opening Remarks

Read "Floaters fade from view", an article from Upstream Magazine featuring Peter.

Welcome everybody. I'm Peter Lovie and IQPC have asked me to chair this conference. These commercial conferences are valuable for learning what is really going on in the industry. There's a serious difference between conferences organized by a technical society and one from a commercial conference organizer - it's the fee that is charged for these commercial conferences. It filters out who is here – your company has to be genuinely serious that you
should be here and that you are at a senior enough level to really benefit from the investment!

This is the third commercial conference on FPSOs that I've been asked to chair and speak at in the last eighteen months, and I learn a lot from them. Sure, it's a great way to keep up to speed about FPSO, but it's about people and ideas and change.

A lot has changed in these eighteen months. From happy boom times it feels now to me like the uncertainties of 1998 when the supermajors were laying off in Houston. It's been happening again in the last few months with layoffs at BP and Chevron and the Shell guys are sweating right now. These companies don't like to talk about it too much. I was working at Devon, the largest of the US independents - and enjoying it - but they went through a big re-organization in June, reducing their exposure to the high risk high return Lower Tertiary trend in the Gulf of Mexico where they had almost as large a position as Chevron but of course Chevron has five times the market cap of Devon. Devon is not selling out but selling down. So a bunch of us in
deepwater projects and planning were not needed any more, and that's why the agenda for this conference says that I am "Ex Devon". However as people say, "it's an ill wind that blows no one any good" and I'm now on new business, asconsulting advisor on floating systems for Vanco Energy Company of Houston, a deepwater explorer offshore West Africa and Ukraine.

Another disquieting sign in our industry is the current status of the world's FPSO fleet and the number of FPSOs without contracts. I count 183 FPSOs in the world, either existing or being built or converted in a shipyard, with 83 of these owned by oil companies and the rest of them, 99, being owned by contractors and leased to oil companies. I count 8 FPSOs building on speculation, still without work commitments and then there are 9 more FPSOs currently idle and off location. So there's 8+9 out of 99 that are out of work: 17%, that's huge. It's never been that high a proportion before. And this is not allowing for any FPSOs known to be coming idle very soon but that has not been announced.

This large an idle fleet harkens back to the 1990s with drilling rigs and the years of adjusting and consolidating in the industry. But FPSOs are not the same as drilling rigs. Each oilfield is different and each FPSO may need more modification and more investment for the next assignment than typically happens with a drillship or a semi. At today's shipyard prces it may be economic to build an FPSO conversion rather than adapt one of these idle FPSOs – that's part of the economic predicament for owners of these idle FPSOs.

Simultaneous with all that equipment being without work, oil company inquiries for FPSOs have slowed way down - other than the amazing world of Petrobras. So tomorrow does not look too good in today's FPSO world. It conjures up what the Vince Lombardi the American football
coach said about "when the going gets tough the tough get going". Hey, with FPSOs, the going is getting tough.

So with that cheerful note, on now to the first presentation today on the "Market Outlook: The Future for the FPSO Market", from Julian Callanan of Infield Systems Ltd.

Agenda

Presentations given by Peter
FPSOs and the US Gulf of Mexico:
The Differences, the 14 year Journey to the First FPSO in GoM and the Future
Successful Reliability & Safety with DP Vessels in the FPSO World
Typical Oil Company Requirements, Industry Precedents
Conclusions & The Way Forward
Day One - Tuesday 29th September 2009
8:30 Congress Registration
9:00 Chairperson's Opening Remarks
Peter Lovie
Senior Advisor Floating Systems, ex Devon Energy Corporation
9:10 KEYNOTE MARKET OUTLOOK: THE FUTURE OF THE FPSO MARKET
Julian Callanan, Analyst, Infield Systems Limited
9:50 OWNER INNOVATIONS KEYNOTE:EXECUTION AND OPERATIONS OF THE WORLD'S FIRST FDPSO: AZURITE
Roy Hallås, Chief Operating Officer, Prosafe Production Public Limited
10:30 Morning Refreshments and Networking Break
11:00 GLOBAL OWNER KEYNOTE: EVOLUTION OF THE FPSO SEGMENT/SECTOR IN TURBULENT TIMES - STRATEGIES FOR SURVIVAL
Hassan Basma, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Bumi Armada Berhad
11:40 FUTURE OF FPSO INDUSTRY AND ABB'S DIRECTION
Havard Devold, Vice President - Market Development and COE Offshore, ABB Industry Pte Ltd
12:20

PANEL: WHERE WILL THE FINANCIAL STORM BLOW FPSO DEVELOPMENTS TOWARDS

Roy Hallås, Chief Operating Officer, Prosafe Production Public Limited

Hassan Basma, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Bumi Armada Berhad

Lee Ming-Yao, Manager of Offshore& Marine Structures Team, Chevron Energy Technology Company

13:00 Networking Lunch
14:00
TECHNICAL STREAM (Grand Ballroom) COMMERCIAL STREAM (Ballroom 2)

CHAIRPERSON: Peter Lovie

INTEGRITY MANAGEMENT FOR THE MODERN OFFSHORE INDUSTRY
Kinsley Weatherhead, Project Manager - Floating Offshore
Installations, Lloyd's Register Asia

CHAIRPERSON: Harold W.M. Linssen

FINANCING FOR YOUR NEW FPSO PROJECTS: WHERE, HOW AND WHEN

Nazery Khalid, Research Fellow, Maritime Institute of
Malaysia

RISER SYSTEMS FOR FPSO DEVELOPMENT IN SHALLOW WATER AND HARSH ENVIRONMENT

Christophe Dieumegard, Flexible Pipe Business Development Manager, Technip

PANEL: LESSONS LEARNT FROM PROJECTS WHICH FAILED AND NEW OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD

Moderator: Nazery Khalid,
Research Fellow, Maritime
Institute of Malaysia

S. Murugavel, Managing
Director & Principal Consultant,
Project Performance Enhancement Enterprise (Pte) Ltd

JD Patel, Director,
Karmen Engineering Pte
1440 Ltd

Tony Regan
Principal Consultant
Tri-Zen International Pte
Ltd

15:20 Afternoon tea and networking break
15:40

PANEL TOPIC: UNCOVERING THE FUTURE OF MAINTENANCE,
RELIABILITY STRATEGIES AND TECHNOLOGIES

Moderator: Anis Altaf Hussain, GM, Keppel Deepwater Technology Group Pte Ltd

Shimamura Yoshihide, Head of Engineering, Modec

Ronald Chew, Research Engineer, FPSO and Process, Keppel Offshore and Marine
Technology Centre Pte Ltd

Subhamoy Bhattacharya,
Lecturer in Dynamics Engineering, Department of Civil
Engineering, University of
Bristol

PROJECT RESOURCES POOL AND INTERFACE MANAGEMENT IN FPSO BOHAISHIYOU 113

Oliver Tong, Project Director CNOOC

 

CASE STUDY: LIVE CASE STUDY DETAILING CURRENT LENDER/ CONTRACTOR/OPERATOR ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH THE FINANCING AND OPERATION OF AN FPSO

Marcus Gordon (litigation/arbitration
partner) Watson, Farley & Williams LL

Chris Lowe (finance partner)
Watson, Farley & Williams LL

16:20
FPDSO: THE SAFE CO-EXISTANCE OF DRILLING AND PRODUCTION
Kjell Fotland
Principal Engineer, DNV
 
17:00 Day One Wrap Up By Chairperson
17.30 10th Anniversary Cocktail Reception

 

Day Two - Wednesday 30 September 2009
08:30 Congress Re-Registration
09:00 Chairperson's Opening
Peter Lovie, Senior Advisor Floating Systems, ex Devon Energy Corporation
09:10 GLOBAL OPERATOR KEYNOTE INNOVATIONS IN FPSO: AN OPERATOR'S VIEW ON DEEPWATER FLOATING SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT
Lee Ming-Yao, Manager of Offshore & Marine Structures Team,
Chevron Energy Technology Company
09:50 REMOTE CONTROLLED UWILD WITH INNOVATIVE CRAWLING ROV AND MEASUREMENT SYSTEM
Franck Fraval - Commercial Engineer
Romain Becart - DCNS Vetting Engineer Expert
10:30 Morning Refreshments & Networking
11:00
TECHNICAL STREAM (Grand Ballroom) COMMERCIAL STREAM (Ballroom 2)

CHAIRPERSON: Peter Lovie

A CONOCOPHILLIPS CASE STUDY: RISK MANAGEMENT OF PENG BO FPSO TOW AND MATING OPERATIONS

Liao Shihwei, Project Manager, ConocoPhillips

CHAIRPERSON: Harold W.M. Linssen

MANAGING OPTIMISED FPSO ASSEMBLY IN A CONSTRAINED INDUSTRY

Harold W.M. Linssen, Managing Director, Keppel Verolme

11:40

WÄRTSILÄ - A GLOBAL FPSO ACTOR: FROM CONVERSION TO OPERATION

Magnus Miemois, Senior VP
Wärtsilä Norway AS

CONTRACTING AND EXECUTION STRATEGIES: OPERATIONS AND REPARATIONS FOR FIELD STARTUP
FOR MITIGATING MID PROJECT LEGAL RUN-INS

George Horsington, GM, Swire Pacific Offshore

12:20 Lunch and networking break
13:20

RESPONSE-BASED METOCEAN CRITERIA FOR OPTIMISING DESIGN AND OPERATION OF FPSOs

Hermione van Zutphen
Metocean Engineer
Shell UK

PANEL TOPIC: OPTIMISING COST OF OPERATIONS WITH YOUR PARTNERS: UNDERSTANDING ITS ROLE OF SHIPBUILDERS, OWNERS AND OPERATORS

Primila Edward, Consultant from PetroVietnam

Jeffrey. A. Sim, VP
Technical, BW offshore

Cedric Morandini
AMOG Consulting

14:00

A CASE STUDY OF INTERFACE ENGINEERING: MAXIMISING PROJECT SUCCESS

Noel Denton
Group Engineering Manage
DPS Bristol Ltd

SPECIAL DOUBLE PRESENTATION ON DP FPSOs: OIL COMPANY REQUIREMENTS, PRECEDENTS AND WHAT MAY LIE AHEAD

Peter Lovie
Senior Advisor Floating Systems
ex Devon Energy Corporation

14:40

INNOVATIONS IN FPSO: MEETING INDUSTRY STANDARDS AND CLASS RULES FOR YOUR FLOATING
LNG FLEET

Franck Legerstee, Regional Offshore Project Manager SEA,
Bureau Veritas

SPECIAL DOUBLE PRESENTATION ON DP FPSOs: OIL COMPANY REQUIREMENTS, PRECEDENTS AND WHAT MAY LIE AHEAD

Peter Lovie
Senior Advisor Floating Systems, ex Devon Energy
Corporation

15:20 Afternoon Refreshments and Networking
15:50 REDUCING MAINTENANCE SHUT-DOWNS WITH PRESSURISED WELDING HABITATS
Alan Ryan, Hotwork Enclosure Manager, K2 Specialist Services
16:10 FPSOs AND THE US GULF OF MEXICO: THE DIFFERENCES, THE 14 YEAR JOURNEY TO THE FIRST FPSO IN GOM AND THE FUTURE
Peter Lovie, Senior Advisor Floating Systems, ex Devon Energy Corporation
16:50 Chairman's Summary & Close of Conference Day Two