Aker Solutions Shares New Details of Unmanned FPSO Concept

Abstract

Large, unmanned floating facilities may be on course to become the embodiment of all that is promised by the oil and gas industry’s digital revolution. Fewer people working in remote corners of the globe, leaving behind fewer carbon footprints. Thanks to the advent of the internet-of-things, all systems are monitored from the safety of an onshore center. In the background, a digital twin peers into the future for equipment failures. Minor tasks, such as leak detection and corrosion monitoring, are done by a diverse cast of robots and fixed sensors. Bigger maintenance projects are performed by human crews who visit only once or twice a year via a service vessel - there will be no helipad. Also absent are any staff accommodations, cranes, or a control room. This is a quick snapshot of Aker Solutions’ latest version of an unmanned floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel. The Norwegian offshore engineering firm has been iterating on the idea since at least 2017 when it promoted unmanned FPSOs to drive down offshore development costs. And while it remains today only an idea, there are just a few scalable barriers keeping an unmanned floater from being realized, according to Aker Solutions Senior Manager Anna Frostad. “The unmanned FPSO concept improves both field economy and HSE - and I therefore think this is the design for the future,” Frostad said during an online presentation of a technical paper (OTC 30905) she coauthored for the 2020 Offshore Technology Conference. In terms of savings, the paper suggests that the future owners of an unmanned FPSO will likely be oil companies that are committed to long-term results. To build one might only be 10% cheaper than to build a conventional FPSO. On the back end though, first adopters may see a reduction in typical operating expenses of up to 30%. Frostad emphasized that whoever is first must also adopt a “subsea mindset” and a very large digital tool box. She outlined three key elements to the subsea mindset: design simplicity, high-quality equipment, and a modular layout that enables a “plug-and-play” approach to replacing critical systems. Taking this approach conceptually also meant that the design engineers would need to forego the adaptation of existing FPSO designs. “The starting point was a blank sheet of paper,” with the overriding principle being that every system added to the design needed to be “justified in,” said Frostad. The result is what the company calls a lean design. From the highest level, the lean FPSO she described shares many of the same characteristics of a typical manned FPSO, including a tanker-shaped hull. The planned-for oil storage capacity is 1 million bbl, the maximum operating depth is 1000 m (about 3,280 ft), and its distance to shore is limited to 200 km (about 125 miles). As oil is stabilized on the topside, the natural gas is to be conditioned, compressed, and reinjected into the subsea reservoir.