Dutch offshore services giant Boskalis has revealed that its largest semi-submersible heavy transport vessel was in charge of transporting Shell’s new floating production unit (FPU), destined for deployment in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
Shell made a final investment decision for the Whale deepwater development, located in the Perdido Corridor , in July 2021. This project is part of the energy giant’s Gulf of Mexico portfolio and is expected to feature energy-efficient gas turbines and compression systems. The development features a 99% replicated hull and an 80% replication of the topsides from the Vito project.
Seatrium, former Sembcorp Marine, was hired for the construction of the Whale FPU , involving the fabrication and integration of the FPU topsides, living quarters, and hull. The company delivered the completed FPU Whale, comprising a topside module and a four-column semi-submersible floating hull, in October 2023.
The integration of the FPU Whale topside and hull in one single lift was enabled by the Goliath twin cranes with a combined 30,000-tonne lifting capacity and a 100-meter hook height. According to Boskalis, its Boka Vanguard vessel, which was loaded with the 25,000-ton FPU Whale, recently arrived in Ingleside, United States.
The 2012-built Boka Vanguard is a semi-submersible vessel for heavy transport and offshore dry-docking built by Hyundai Heavy Industries. With a bow-less design, it has a deadweight of 116,175 dwt and a total installed power of 28,500 kW. The vessel can carry its load at a max speed of 14 knots.
“The Whale is another impressive platform that we transported for Shell to the Gulf of Mexico. In March 2022, our semi-submersible transport vessel Mighty Servant 1 successfully transported the Vito platform. We thank the crew of the BOKA Vanguard for the successful execution of this transport project,” underlined Boskalis.
Whale, discovered in 2017 , is located in the Alaminos Canyon Block 773, approximately 200 miles southwest of Houston, and is adjacent to the Shell-operated Silvertip field , approximately 10 miles from the oil major’s operated Perdido platform. The project is scheduled to begin production in 2024.
The Whale development is operated by Shell Offshore (60%) while Chevron (40%) acts as the oil major’s partner. The Gulf of Mexico project, which is expected to reach peak production of around 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d), has an estimated, recoverable resource volume of 490 million boe.
Recently, Shell inked a letter of intent with Seatrium for another FPU destined for a deepwater project in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The Sparta FPU is conceived as a replicable project between the companies to leverage topside single lift integration methodology, following the Vito and Whale newbuild facilities.
The final contract award is subject to a FID being made for the project.