Sembcorp Marine put in charge of FEED work for Dorado FPSO

Singapore’s Sembcorp Marine has secured an exclusive contract from Altera Infrastructure to undertake the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) work for the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for Santos’ Dorado project in Australia.

The contract was secured through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Sembcorp Marine Rigs & Floaters.

Santos awarded the FEED contract for the Dorado FPSO to Altera Infrastructure in August 2021. Santos said the FPSO contract would start with full definition engineering by Altera to confirm the technical requirements for the FPSO and associated disconnectable mooring system.

Located in the Bedout Sub-basin, offshore Western Australia, Dorado is an integrated oil and gas project which is expected to have an initial oil production of 75,000 to 100,000 barrels per day, with subsequent development of significant gas resources. Operated by Santos, Dorado will be one of the lowest emission intensity oil and gas projects in the region, given its very low CO₂ reservoir with approximately 1.5 per cent CO₂ and plans for the reinjection of gas in the initial phase.

Sembcorp Marine said on Friday that the FEED work is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2022. This is the company’s third EPC project in collaboration with Altera Infrastructure, following the successful delivery of FPSO Pioneiro de Libra and FPSO Petrojarl Cidade de Itajai in 2017 and 2012 respectively.

The FPSO is the project’s largest component, comprising engineering, procurement of equipment, bulk materials and services, construction, installation, commissioning and testing of the facility.

Only days after the FPSO contract award to Altera, Santos also awarded the FEED contract for the design, construction, and installation of the wellhead platform (WHP) for the Dorado project to Sapura Energy.

The WHP will be an unmanned installation, located in 90 metres of water over the Dorado oil and gas field, hosting the development wells and gas reinjection wells with minimal processing facilities, remotely operated from an FPSO vessel approximately two kilometres away.

Development drilling will be conducted with a jack-up drilling unit after the WHP has been installed, with the drilling of the wells planned for 2024 and 2025.