BW Pioneer will be the first FPSO to be deployed in the US Gulf of Mexico and turret moored at the deepest waters ever for an FPSO. Source: Keppel. Click to enlarge.

Designed to handle the harsh operating conditions in GoM, BW Pioneer is equipped with an internal disconnectable Submerged Turret Production (STP) mooring system and outfitted with advanced safety features to withstand environmental loads from currents, waves and wind. In the event of an approaching hurricane, this highly advanced safety feature will allow the FPSO to disengage from site and move on her own propulsion to seek sheltered waters.

The FPSO is slated to set sail from Singapore in December 2009 and to arrive in the Gulf of Mexico in early 2010. Built based on the hull of a different vessel, the FPSO is 241 meters long, 42 meters wide, and 20.4 meters tall. The vessel is capable of processing nearly 80,000 barrels of oil and 500,000 cubic meters of gas per day and can store nearly 500,000 barrels of oil.

The vessel started being converted into an FPSO at the Cosco Shipyard, in Nantong, China, in March 2008. That same year, in July, the vessel sailed to the Keppel Shipyard, in Singapore, and is expected to be completed in December.

With the development of the Cascade and Chinook fields, Petrobras will change the way operations are done in Gulf of Mexico waters, where technologies used successfully in Brazil are being applied. In addition to the FPSO, oil transportation by means of shuttle tankers and the use self-sustainable submerged pumps and risers (submarine outflow lines) are among the innovations Petrobras is introducing in the region.

In the first phase of the project, the objective of which is to analyze reservoir performance, two wells in the Cascade field, and one well in the Chinook field will be interconnected to the vessel. In the second, seven more wells from the Chinook field and another seven wells from the Chinook field may be added on. Production is scheduled to go on stream at the two fields in mid-2010.

Petrobras is the operator of the Cascade and Chinook wells, with 50% and 66.7% stakes, respectively. Devon Energy Corporation is a partner in Cascade, while Total E&P USA, Inc., a Total SA subsidiary, holds 33.33% of the stakes in Chinook.