Floating Production Units

Modern technology has developed various innovative types of floating units for oil and gas production, such as storage and offloading: FPSO, FSO, LNG-FPSO and Semi-sub production platforms.  As the floating production factory operating offshore, FPU requires high standards of protective coatings to secure the best practice on efficiency, reliability and HSE. 

To maintain long-term safe and profitable operations, floating production units rely on the coatings to overcome various challenges.  Utilise the leading coating solutions developed to cover the needs of floating production units:

FPUs operate in static conditions - in most cases for the whole lifetime - which brings significant challenges to the owner and operator at various aspects.  Fouling not only reduces the lifetime of underwater protective coatings, but also obstructs underwater inspection and reduces the payload of the floating unit. In some extreme cases, the FPU is forced to unexpected docking at daily loss of millions dollars due to downtime.  SeaQuantum Ultra S and SeaLion Resilient antifouling coatings are well qualified for these challenging conditions.

Crude oil abstracted from offshore oil fields normally contains high level of water, acid and other corrosive chemicals.  In addition the oil may be very hot when pumped into the crude oil tank.  The tank lining should handle both chemicals and high temperatures to ensure continuous production of the FPU, and to avoid interruptions caused by coating failures in crude and slop tanks.

Safety is always of top priority for all types of offshore installations, including FPUs.  Processing and storage of hydrocarbon on board the crowded FPU involves high risk of fire, thus the most reliable passive fire protection (PFP) towards hydrocarbon pool fire and jet fire is essential.  In addition to performance and liability, application efficiency is critical.  When billions of capital expenditures are invested in offshore oil & gas production, a PFP that enables simplified and efficient application will save valuable time and cost for both the owner and fabricator.

A Floating Production Unit is actually an offshore oil & gas production plant consisting of pipes and valves working at extreme temperatures. Cold splash from LNG will cool steel down to -190ºC, while some pipes and valves work at temperature of 600ºC.  This represents a severe challenge to coatings in protecting structural integrity and functionality.  Jotun provides a total temperature management solution to achieve maximum safety and environmental security for FPUs.

Carbon steel with maximum operating temperature < 120°C
–  Structural steel
–  Exteriors of equipment, vessels, piping and valves (not insulated)

Carbon steel with operating temperature > 120°C
–  All insulated surfaces of tanks, vessels, piping
–  Flare booms and crane booms
Underside of bottom deck included piping, jacket above splash zone and life boat stations are optional areas (to be decided in each project)

Internal of carbon steel tanks

Walkways, escape routes and lay down areas

Under passive fire protection

Stainless steel, aluminium and galvanised steel

Submerged carbon steel and carbon steel in the splash zone
Submerged stainless steel and stainless steel in the splash zone

Structural carbon steel with operating temperature ≤80°C in internal and fully dry and ventilated areas

Bulk supplied carbon steel valves with operating temperature up to 150°C