Douglas-Westwood: Industry to see increase in FPS deployment in 2014

Energy industry analyst Douglas-Westwood is forecasting that nearly $100 billion will be spent worldwide on floating production systems (FPS) between 2014-2018, according to a company market report. That would be an increase of 138% over the previous 5-year period.

The report says that long-term growth will be spurred by continued deepwater development, marginal fields, and fast-track, short-term deployments. The increase in deepwater deployments will account for $68 billion in value, or two thirds of the total spend over the next 5 years.

Floating production, storage, and offloading systems (FPSOs) will make up the largest segment of the market in units installed and capital expenditure. And Latin America will account for 29% of the 139 installations forecast by the report as well as 38% of the capex.

The FPS sector has seen a steady recovery since the downturn in 2008-09. However, there has been little growth in the annual value of installed units over the last 4 years. Douglas-Westwood sees 2014 as the first year of a significant increase in the value of units deployed.