Malaysia’s maritime solutions and services provider MISC Berhad has held the naming and delivery ceremony of its new floating, storage and offloading (FSO) facility for Chevron, the FSO Benchamas 2.
The ceremony was held at MMHE West Yard, Pasir Gudang, Johor, MISC informed on Monday.
The project marked MISC’s maiden foray into Thailand’s offshore oil & gas sector as well as its first partnership with Chevron Thailand in the offshore space.
The contract for the lease and operations of the FSO was secured through an international competitive bidding process and was signed between MISC Offshore Floating Terminals (L) Limited (MOFT) and Chevron Offshore (Thailand) in August 2016.
Conversion works for the FSO Benchamas 2 Project started in early 2017 . The donor vessel for the conversion was the formerly AET-operated Bunga Kelana 5, an Aframax tanker built in March 1999 with a 105,400 deadweight tonnage which can store around 750,000 tonnes of crude oil.
The FSO will be deployed for a full field development for Chevron at the Benchamas field in the Gulf of Thailand. The project is expected to start by the second quarter of 2018.
According to MISC, FSO Benchamas 2 Project took over 2.2 million man-hours to complete. The FSO has a storage capacity of 650,000 barrels with 12 years design life without drydocking.
MISC’s President/Group Chief Executive Officer, Yee Yang Chien , said “FSO Benchamas 2 is a significant achievement for MISC, being our first collaboration with Chevron in the offshore segment. With our broad spectrum of energy related maritime solutions and services, be it in energy shipping or offshore solutions, MISC is confident of our ability to serve the various needs of the global oil and gas industry.”
He added: “Today, we have pushed boundaries in achieving our aspirations of having an FSO facility in Thailand into a reality. This project represents our commitment to conduct our business in a responsible and sustainable manner as well as to execute this project effectively.”