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Some five years have passed since the U.S. Minerals Management Service approved controversial rules and regulations governing the use of floating production, storage and offloading systems (FPSOs) in the Gulf of Mexico. But wait no longer. The U.S. Gulf has its first serious taker.
Last year two "ultra-deepwater" projects emerged as likely candidates for the first-ever FPSO operation in the U.S. Gulf, or for that matter, in U.S. territorial waters: the Shell-operated Perdido Regional Development project in Alaminos Canyon and the Petrobras-operated Cascade-Chinook project, east of Alaminos Canyon in Walker Ridge.
The Shell group recently opted for subsea pipelines that initially would transport oil and gas to shore from three significant Lower Tertiary discoveries: Great White, Tobago and Silver Tip.
This left the Petrobras group as the only remaining contenders for an FPSO-based production system, which gained MMS "conceptual" approval earlier this year. Petrobras said then it would use six technologies that had never been applied in the U.S. Gulf, including FPSOs with disconnect able turrets, which allow them to be removed in the event of hurricanes or other storms, oil transportation by relief vessels, submerged pumps, self-sustainable risers, torpedo piles, and polyester anchoring lines.
FPSOs and shuttle tankers are considered to be a cost-effective means of collecting and transporting offshore oil where pipeline infrastructure is too costly or technologically not feasible to construct. Cascade and Chinook...