North Sea Producer
SPIE WHS were chosen by SLP/Odebrecht back in 1998 to assist them with the conversion of a supertanker into a Floating Production Storage & Offloading vessel (FPSO). The development is based on the Dagmar Maersk, a former product carrier which was converted and renamed North Sea Producer.
SPIE WHS supplied 300 employees and after 11 months the job was complete.
The MacCulloch oil field lies 250km north-east of Aberdeen in UKCS block 15/24b, in a water depth of 150m. Its reservoir consists of channelled Upper Balmoral turbidite sandstones of the late Palaeocene age, which are located approximately 1,850m subsea.
The MacCulloch project marked Conoco’s first use of floating production, storage and offtake technology in British waters.
During the conversion stage, a turret was inserted into the front tanks and a process deck was installed 3.25m above the ship’s main deck. In addition, processing facilities for 60,000bpd of oil were installed. For enhanced recovery, water-injection facilities with a capacity of 72,000bpd of water and gas lift/export facilities with a capacity of 20-24 million ft/day were also specified. The North Sea Producer has an oil-storage capacity of 560,000bbl and it can carry out offshore loading, in the event that the pipeline becomes unavailable.
