The Business of
FPSOs, Shuttle Tankers and Peter Lovie

Export Debate and Reception • New Orleans, Louisiana • February 2009

The coming competition between pipelines and shuttle tankers on export in the these same remote ultra deep waters of the GoM, and what this may mean in the next two years is discussed in a presentation at Deep Oil Technology (DOT) in New Orleans in February 2009:, it stirred a friendly debate between the protagonists of the different transportation modes in a reception afterwards.

The gunslingers (panelists)

The Gunslingers
  • 1Rex Mars with Project Consulting, independent pipeline construction viewpoint
  • 2Jim Healey with Williams, major pipeline owner and operator
  • 3Tom Burgess  with OSG, shipowner, shuttle tanker contractor for Cascade/Chinook
  • 4Kim Diedrichsen with Remora, developer of HiLoad
  • 5Gene Kliewer with Offshore magazine, moderator
  • 6Peter Lovie with Devon, operator, end user
Magnifying Glass Click thumbnails to view larger images

The Two Linked & Ongoing Debates:

Facility and Transportation

1. Facility - two main options

  • Semisubmersible or Spar without storage
  • FPSO with storage + Disconnectable

2. Transportation – five main options

  • Pipeline: Long history of success in GoM;
  • Shuttle Tankers: First use at Cascade/Chinook in 2010, common in North Sea;
  • FSO + Shuttle Tankers: Common elsewhere in   world, studied for GoM;
  • One Hiload + Conventional Tankers for FPSO: only new part is HiLoad prototype;
  • Two HiLoads + conventional tankers for Semi/Spar.

 

The Lower Tertiary Trend in GoM:

Scene of the future "Shoot out at the LT Corral"

Lower Tertiary

Lower Tertiary Trend - Encouraging Industry Results

 

Lower Tertiary Block Ownership

Not a traditional line up for a frontier
Ownership