The Concept of FLT

Abstract

Brazil has an exclusive economic zone with extension of over $$3.6 \times 10^{6} \, \text{km}^{2}$$ , containing its whole continental shelf. The Brazilian continental shelf is composed by 18 sedimentary basins with high potential for hydrocarbon accumulation. Among these basins, the Campos and Santos Basins are highly prolific, accounting for more than 90 % of Brazilian petroleum production. In addition, the Brazilian Equatorial Margin is an exploratory frontier where more reserves are expected to be discovered. Because the extension of the equatorial margin, the current available logistics infrastructure may be insufficient to supply logistics services to all exploration and production (E&P) activities in the region. This article presents the concept of a floating logistics terminal (FLT), composed by several floating bodies. The advantages of the FLT is its fast installation, no need for breakwaters, cost effectiveness if using a recycled hull from a very large crude carrier (VLCC) or bulk carrier (BC), and small footprint after decommission. Furthermore, this article includes some intial discussions about the offshore upstream logistics and the FLT application. Finally, we present results concerning the hydrodynamic behavior of the FLT in waves obtained during this research project carried out at the University of Tokyo.