Maersk FPSOs' Projects & Engineering Departments are the technical backbones of our company. Floating production units represent some of the most complex engineering challenges in the oil and gas industry. They incorporate all fields of engineering from high-end electronic instrumentation to advanced piping and process design. A multitude of technical disciplines must come together under harsh weather conditions and in a maritime environment where any crane or subsea operation requires meticulous planning to uphold our vigorous safety standards. All projects are carried out in close collaboration with our customers and subcontractors. Our Project Department operates in two areas: newbuilds and modifications.

Newbuilds

Converting an existing tanker to a new FPSO is an awesome task, and an investment of more than a billion dollars. Further a new FPSO requires years of planning and construction. Nothing is more exciting to our engineers than working on tailoring a floating unit to the requirements of a specific oil field, all personnel working as one big organism: a team with a common goal and working towards the precise deadlines demanded by such enormous projects. The assembled technical blueprints are not measured in pages or folders - but in tons.

Our latest newbuild, the Maersk Peregrino, was deployed from a Singapore shipyard in 2010. In place off the coast of Brazil, it achieved first oil in the spring of 2011. At the peak of the engineering process, our Projects Department had more than 250 people (permanent staff as well as contracted specialists) working on the Peregrino alone, both on front end engineering and in various specialized tasks. Among them were:

• Development and definition of technical scope
• Supplier recommendation incl. strategic alliances
• Project management (costs, planning, documentation) and execution
• Engineering support and verification

One of the most exciting things about performing an FPSO conversion is the task's multidisciplinary character as well as the advanced process management required in collaborating with specialized subcontractors around the globe.

Primary subcontractors on the Peregrino project (PDF)

Modifications

Our projects department also works on shorter term projects, primarily upgrades and modifications to our six FPSO units. The projects are planned in collaboration with our customers and usually involve a team of 10-20 engineers working together as a designated unit within the company.

One such major project has been to replace the gas compression module on board the Maersk Ngujima-Yin whilst maintaining oil production. This involved removing and replacing two gas compression trains, comprising two 12 tonne turbines and two compressors, all whilst the FPSO was in production and subject to sea conditions offshore Western Australia.