Sembcorp Marine’s subsidiary Sembawang Shipyard has won an order for a conversion of two tankers into floating storage production offloading (FPSO) vessels worth about S$600 million (US$479.8 million) from French customer Saipem SA.

Under the contract, the yard is responsible for the conversion of two very large crude carriers (VLCCs) sister ships into two turret-moored FPSOs for the Kaombo project located offshore Angola, approx. 150 kilometres from the coast. Major works also include refurbishment of the VLCCs, construction engineering, the fabrication of flare, helicopter deck, upper turret and access structure and integration of the topsides modules which will be fabricated at Saipem’s Indonesian Yard, plus adding lower turret components and pre-commissioning of the FPSOs. The two converted FPSO units, owned by French oil company Total, will each have an oil treating capacity of 115,000 barrels per day, a water injection capacity of 200,000 barrels per day, a 100 million standard cubic feet of gas compression capacity and a storage capacity of 1.7 million barrels of oil. The first VLCC, Olympia, is expected to enter Sembawang Shipyard in the third quarter 2014 while the second VLCC, Antartica, will arrive at the yard in the first quarter 2015. The total project duration will be 32 months.