Houston: Over the next five years, Houston-based research firm Quest expects in a new report an 88% growth in floating production system (FPS) award levels “illustrating a strong resurgence of investment in high-capital, major deep water developments”. This growth coupled with current high levels of offshore rig construction will buoy oil and gas related utilization of major offshore fabrication shipyards to “record levels”, Quest maintained. While demand within China and Brazil yards continues to grow, leadership from Korean yards will be the status quo; as drillships destined for the golden triangle, mega FPSOs, floating LNG, and platform topsides will continue to dominate demand.
Offshore oil and gas construction demand reached record levels in 2012 with an estimated 3m tonnes of steel awarded to shipyards. “This momentum continues the most recent cyclical build out of deepwater drilling vessels in 2009 and will begin to flow into an increased demand of FPS systems in the next five years,” Quest said.
With a mean case of 25 FPS orders per year over the next five years, the movement in spending between years will be driven by project mix.
“Near-term demand within converted units is likely to be a major theme, leading to steady demand within Singapore and select Chinese shipyards,” Quest said, noting how there have been two FPSO conversions from Petrobras in 2013 already to replace delays out of Brazil. [25/04/13]
