Three Kings and One Castle: Operational Challenges of the Azurite FDPSO
Authors: Brezger Kelly , Estorffe Mike , Cooper Kevin , Buchan John 
Published: July 2010

Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels have become the norm for deepwater oil production in most regions around the world. FPSOs lend themselves to operating environments where local markets for the produced oil are minimal and/or where existing facilities storage infrastructure is limited or non-existent.

Most FPSO contracts are structured as bare-boat and operating charter agreements between the vessel and process facilities owner/operator and the block leaseholder/developer. Both parties to this agreement strive to work productively through the inevitable technical, organizational, and logistical challenges.

The Azurite field offshore Republic of Congo enjoys another level of complexity altogether. Azurite employs the world's first Floating, Drilling, Production, Storage and Offloading (FDPSO) vessel. The Azurite FDPSO is thus comprised of three principal stakeholders (the " Three Kings??): a drilling rig owner/operator, a vessel and process facilities owner/operator, and a block developer/subsea hardware owner.

The challenges facing the Azurite Project and Operations Teams were real and multi-faceted. Rarely before had a project of its type, structure, and complexity been undertaken within the aggressive 30 month timeframe allotted. In order to make Azurite a success, alignment between the principal stakeholders was a critical success factor. That meant identifying and aligning not only on common high-level mission, vision, and values, but also on responsibilities and operating procedures among the entities involved.

This paper will present the various and complex tripartite challenges encountered and overcome throughout the course of the operational readiness phase of project execution, as well as the subsequent transition to drilling and production operations.

Introduction

The Azurite project team set out to develop the Azurite field given the mission to do so with the most cost effective, timely, and fit-for-purpose strategy possible while achieving the project deliverables with industry leading Health, Safety, Environment and Quality (HSEQ) performance. The coordination and execution of deepwater drilling operations is complicated. Strict adherence to procedures that make up the drilling program and inevitable modifications to the program, coordination of personnel and equipment logistics planning, and reactive troubleshooting are critical to the success of drilling campaigns.

Much like drilling, deepwater production and crude offloading operations, regardless of global location, share the same challenges in order to ensure and deliver world class safety and environmental performance, operating efficiency, minimum operating expenditures (OPEX), and maximum profit to shareholders.

Azurite employs the world's first Floating, Drilling, Production, Storage and Offloading (FDPSO) vessel. The Azurite FDPSO is thus comprised of three principle stakeholders: a drilling rig owner/operator, a vessel and process facilities owner/operator, and a block developer/subsea hardware owner. These are the " Kings of the Castle??, referred to hereafter as the " Three Kings.?? The application of the FDPSO concept for the Azurite field development, together with the tripartite stakeholder involvement, enabled the vision of a fast track to first oil but also demanded a field development plan that would, out of necessity, require the challenging integration of project execution processes, procedures, and management systems from the Three Kings. This integration would be paramount to Azurite's success.