The FPSO – a modern offshore wonder

An interview with parliament’s speaker resonated with many. The lady embodies a gracious presence, and having booted some errant MPs from the House, perhaps she will be a good candidate for the presidency when that time comes.

For that position, she and perhaps Mcebisi Jonas outpace three most unsuitable politicians currently jockeying for favour: the current crown prince, a certain loquacious secretary-general, or the sonorous-voiced premier of Gauteng.

We need positive, visionary leaders who, shrugging off irritating political mosquitoes, tackle major issues head-on and with aplomb. Such an issue is the country’s fuel supply, currently dominated by Middle Eastern producers whose prices plus shipping costs add to South Africans’ financial woes.

Developments elsewhere – including in Namibia and Mozambique - underline the need for South Africa to establish whether viable oil and gas reserves exist off our coast, and if such fields are discovered, oil or gas production should begin as soon as possible. Encouraging are the prospecting operations off the west coast in the hope that the offshore oilfield off southern Namibia extends into South Africa.

Oil and gas action is occurring across the world. A month ago, Bacalhau, a 370m floating storage, production, and offloading vessel (FPSO), arrived in Brazil to operate on one of that country’s offshore oilfields. This huge vessel was built in Japan with outfitting completed in Singapore.

During her 25-year life, Bacalhau could generate around 50 000 direct and indirect jobs. Within her operating consortium is the Norwegian company Equinor that, among others, was booted from prospecting off the Wild Coast two years ago by an ill-advised court order that must be reversed with alacrity. With vast employment opportunities at stake, this country cannot afford to play too many green games.

Used mainly in deep water, these FPSOs receive hydrocarbons either via their own umbilical piping system connected to the undersea reserve, or from nearby standard oil production platforms. FPSOs partially process the raw petroleum or gas by removing some impurities, and store the substance until a tanker arrives to transport the partially-refined oil or gas to a shoreside refinery for processing into fuels and liquid chemicals. If an FPSO is positioned close enough to the shore, her product can be piped ashore.

The first oil FPSO was completed for Shell in 1977 for operation off the Spanish Mediterranean coast.

Now, almost 300 of these large and complex structures are in service. In the initial wave of acquiring FPSOs, several large tankers were converted for use as FPSOs, but such is the advanced technology required on these vessels that custom-built FPSOs are now in use and several are on order.

One Guyana, an FPSO, is en route to operate in the South American country’s waters, and early information indicated that her towing tugs would bunker at Walvis Bay.

Heading for the Cape en route to Angola are the tugs POSH Eagle, POSH Osprey and POSH Hawk, towing the new 330m FPSO Agogo with the tugs scheduled to bunker at Mauritius. This interesting convoy will be off the Cape in April.

The first FPSO for liquid petroleum gas – SANHA - entered service in 2006. In 2001, Wolraad Woltemade and two other tugs towed her from her builder’s yard at Kure, Japan, via Singapore and Cape Town for final outfitting before she went under tow to the Sanha gasfield off Angola.

Several incidents marked the haul from Singapore to Cape Town. Reports from other ships alerted Wolraad Woltemade’s crew to the presence of pirates, necessitating steel plating to be fitted around the tug’s aerials and navigation lights. A Malaysian warship escorted the slow-moving convoy through the Malacca Straits.

On the morning of 26 December, tourists and locals were fleeing for their lives as a huge, destructive tsunami hit the coastal areas of Sumatra and elsewhere on the Indian Ocean rim.

The epicentre of the earthquake that had caused the tsunami was only 220 nautical miles from the tugs towing Sanha, then approaching the northern end of the Malacca Straits, and partially sheltered from the full impact of the tsunami.

Although tsunamis only become a threat when they reach shallower water, the tugs experienced a sudden heavy, confused swell.

As the tow progressed across the calm Indian Ocean towards South Africa, Tropical Cyclone Ernest off Madagascar posed a threat. However, the cyclone moved down the Mozambique Channel ahead of the convoy and favourable weather continued.

Before arrival in Cape Town, Smit Amandla took over the tow from Wolraad Woltemade, and although the approach to the harbour was in calm weather, the south-easter sprang up, causing the pilot to order all four harbour tugs to the side of Sanha to keep her clear of the mole protruding from A Berth at the harbour entrance.

Outfitting of FPSOs and rigs – and a vibrant offshore oil sector – presents huge employment opportunities and forex earnings, besides the massive rewards emanating from producing our own fuel.

But to seek viable offshore oil and gas reserves, and to regain our oil refining capacity, we need visionary leadership from government and the private sector.

brian@capeports.co.za