Hanwha Ocean Targets Global Offshore Market with 'Standard FPSO'

Concept Approval by US Classification Society ABS and French Classification Society BV

A perspective view of the standard FPSO developed by Hanwha Ocean. Photo by Hanwha Ocean

Hanwha Ocean is strengthening its competitiveness in the global marine market by showcasing its self-developed standard marine plant.

On the 30th, Hanwha Ocean announced that it had simultaneously obtained the Approval In Principle (AIP) for the 'standard FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) Pre-FEED design' from the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and the French classification society Bureau Veritas (BV). An FPSO is known as a "factory on the sea" that extracts crude oil or gas from subsea wells, refines and stores it, and handles offloading to transport vessels.

The standard FPSO design developed by Hanwha Ocean measures 340 meters in length and 62 meters in width. It has a daily crude oil production capacity of 190,000 barrels and can store approximately 2.38 million barrels of crude oil. It is also developed to accommodate topside structures for oil and gas production facilities weighing up to 55,000 tons and covering an area of 17,600 square meters. The hull design allows operation for up to 20 years without re-docking, maximizing operational efficiency.

Hanwha Ocean began the basic planning design (Pre-FEED: Preliminary Front-end Engineering Design) in February with the goal of developing a standard FPSO that can be deployed throughout the deep waters of West Africa, completing it in August. Through this, the company has strengthened its design capabilities for topside structures that consolidate oil production and processing facilities, while further enhancing the competitiveness of its previously leading hull design.

With this concept approval, Hanwha Ocean is expected to strengthen its order competitiveness by offering customers a standardized design that simultaneously achieves shorter construction periods and cost reductions. In particular, West Africa is known as a market where marine plant demand is expected to grow but where marine environmental conditions are relatively challenging. Based on this achievement, the development of standard FPSOs that can also be deployed in other regions such as South America is expected to gain momentum.

Hanwha Ocean's Marine Business Division is pursuing a transformation into a "solution provider" offering turnkey services for floating marine production facilities and marine renewable energy projects, aiming to expand the marine energy value chain.

A Hanwha Ocean official stated, “Marine plant demand is expected to steadily grow mainly in Africa and South America. We will accelerate efforts to strengthen competitiveness in the global marine market through continuous technological innovation and product development.”