DSME Launches Pazflor FPSO's Hull

DSME announced that on Sep. 12, the hull of the Pazflor FPSO was launched at No.1 dock.

Thierry Peron, project manager of Pazflor FPSO for TOTAL, said, "We are very pleased to see the hull activities started and finished on time in the dry dock and that they were completed without an incident. All participants shall be congratulated for such an HSE achievement. We are now looking forward to the next steps with the completion of the hull at quayside and the construction and integration of the modules. We hope these future works will also be completed on time, while keeping the excellent safety record we have."

The Pazflor project has its own specificities that might differ from the usual practices for commercial ships. The size is 3 times bigger than commercial vessels and its number of ship-blocks is more than twice the amounts of LNG ships. It was very difficult for everybody to make adjustment, but through dialogue, TOTAL and DSME eventually achieved excellent results under unfavorable conditions.

Considering all the FPSOs ever constructed throughout the world, the Pazflor FPSO, for which DSME obtained an order from TOTAL about 2 years ago, is outstanding in terms of technical innovations and scale as the hull is 325 meters long, 61 meters wide and 32 meters high.

Once the modules are installed, the FPSO lightweight will be 120,000 tons. It will have a processing capacity up to 220,000 barrels of crude oil per day and a storage capacity close to 2 million barrels. The Pazflor Project is located offshore Angola, in deepwater (600 to 1200 m), approximately 40 km east of the DALIA FPSO and 150 km from the shore.

This FPSO is scheduled to arrive in Angola in the first half of 2011.

Subsequently, H. 2269, 173K LNG carrier ordered by Knutsen in Norway was launched with a progress rate of up to 65.3%