BW Opal FPSO Starts Taking Final Shape Ahead of Barossa Assignment
FPSO leasing company BW Offshore has made progress on the topside module integration for the newbuild floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit BW Opal, that will be deployed at Santos’ Barossa gas project, offshore Australia.
The teams are keeping busy to complete construction of the topside modules in Dyna-Mac and the turret modules in Profab, with the integration and commissioning activities having started at the Seatrium Tuas Boulevard Yard.
So far, nine of the topside modules (including the E-house) have been lifted and on February 4, the first shipboard turret module was integrated into the hull, according to BW Offshore.
“This was a very critical lift, flawlessly executed using the Asian Hercules III floating crane. The module itself, is an extra source of pride to BW Offshore as the shipboard turret is designed and managed completely inhouse,” BW Offshore said.
The works follow the delivery of the BW Opal’s hull, one of the largest ever built, from the SK Oceanplant (SKOP) yard in South Korea.
The hull has an overall length of 358 meters and a width of 64 meters.
After completion of integration and commissioning, the BW Opal FPSO will head to Australia to start production at Santos’ Barossa project.
Located 300 kilometers offshore Darwin in northern Australia, the Barossa gas field is scheduled for first production in the first half of 2025.
The gas field will be developed via the BW Opal FPSO with six subsea production wells, in-field facilities, and a gas export pipeline tied into the Bayu-Undan to Darwin pipeline system that supplies gas to Darwin LNG.
BW Offshore is responsible for engineering, procurement, construction, installation, and operation of the FPSO.
The Final Investment Decision (FID) for the FPSO for the Barossa project was confirmed by Santos and its partners on March 30, 2021, with a services contract including Operation & Maintenance (O&M) with a firm period of 15 years, and 10 years of options.
