Production ship/tanker JV targets drilling

Navion Munin FPSO is shown on site in Lufeng 22-1 oil field in the South China Sea. The 30 million bbl field lies in 330 m of water. The Munin is the first ship to use Statoil's submerged turret production system, which enables it to be disconnected from the riser in only 6-8 hr. Photo courtesy of Navion AS.

Navion Tanker Fleet Deployment [148,928 bytes]

Norwegian production ship/tanker fleet operator Navion AS aims to expand into the drilling market and to develop new floater technologies.

Stavanger-based Navion is owned 80% by Norway's state firm Statoil and 20% by Rasmussen Offshore AS, Kristiansand, Norway. It operates 50 ships, of which it owns seven, and has eight on order.

The venture aims to broaden its range of services over the next 3-4 years to include drilling, by securing long-term drilling contracts and building drilling vessels to service them.

Allan Millmaker, senior vice president for floating production systems at Navion, said the current drilling market provides good opportunities to secure long-term contracts.

"Our objective," said Millmaker, "is to become a full offshore service company. We see a move into drilling as compatible with our production and shuttle tanker operations."

Navion is building a fleet of ships to Statoil's Multipurpose Shuttle Tanker MST design (OGJ, May 23, 1994, p. 26). These can serve as floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessels or shuttle tankers.

Fleet status

Millmaker said Navion has four MST-design ships operating or under construction: two FPSOs and two drillship variants being built under a further joint venture with drilling contractor Smedvig AS, Stavanger.

The first to be built was Berg Hugin FPSO, which was used as a storage tanker for the disappointing extended well test of Connemara discovery for Statoil off Ireland (OGJ, Sept. 1, 1997, p. 36).

The ship is currently having an oil processing plant installed at the Aker McNulty yard in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, U.K, for deployment on Block 23/27 Pierce field by Enterprise Oil plc, London.

Enterprise expects to start production in Pierce field in the fall. Pierce has estimated reserves of 84 million bbl of oil and is expected to produce up to 45,000 b/d over 10-12 years.

The second Navion MST to be built was Navion Munin, which is producing Lufeng 22-1 oil field for operator Statoil in the South China Sea. Lufeng was brought on stream late last year (OGJ, Oct. 21, 1997, p. 24).

West Navion I drillship is due for delivery to Navion "any day now." It will be moved to Stavanger for installation of a drilling package, after which it will be deployed by Smedvig under contract to Statoil.

The second drillship, West Navion II, is under construction in Spain and due for delivery in 1999. After installation of a drilling package, the ship will be deployed by Smedvig for Shell Offshore Inc. in the Gulf of Mexico.

Millmaker said the two West Navion rigs will be owned 50-50 by Navion and Smedvig. This venture will be kept separate from Navion's own plans for the drilling market.

Besides the two drillship projects, Navion has been involved in "modest" feasibility studies for semisubmersible rigs. Millmaker said the company will look to build its expertise in the drilling market.

Navion's fleet mainly comprises offshore storage/loading and shuttle tankers (see map, this page). Besides the two drillships on order, the company is awaiting five more offshore loading tankers and an upgraded production vessel.

Millmaker said Navion intends to market its MST concept to operators with smaller, marginal fields seeking stand-alone solutions: "Here MST has a niche. We don't have ambitions for large, fixed floaters."

Among new technologies under development by suppliers in which Stat- oil and Navion have interests, Millmaker cites suction anchor-loading, which is to be deployed for a storage/offloading tanker in Siri field development for Statoil off Denmark.

This is said to be a relatively simple system comprising the suction anchor, a swivel, and mooring lines. Although comparatively cheap, this system is not able to cope with rough seas: "It's a cost/performance trade-off."

Another new technology is single-anchor production, which is a development of Statoil's submerged turret production system in which a swivel fixed to the seabed replaces the ship's turret.

Millmaker said this system is limited to handling only one or two risers and is also weather-sensitive: "It will be much cheaper than an FPSO solution because the equipment is on the seabed. It could be used to advantage in marginal fields where the operator is prepared to put up with interrupted production."

Navion is also working with South Africa's Sasol Ltd. on a feasibility study for a synthetic crude production ship, in which a gas-to-liquids (GTL) processing plant is mounted on an MST tanker hull.

Millmaker said this GTL solution is being considered for use in Statoil's Norne field off central Norway. Norway has more than enough gas to meet expected contracts, so production of syncrude would be an attractive option to the current plan to send gas to shore via a pipeline to Heidrun field.