As land resources are depleted due to increasing energy demand, offshore resource development is becoming increasingly important, and technological advancements and economic efficiency of offshore plants and FPSOs are attracting attention as promising areas of the future shipbuilding industry.
As energy demand increases globally, people are beginning to realize that resources from land are becoming scarce. As a result, attention has shifted from land resources to marine resources, and interest in offshore plants has grown. Offshore plant is called ‘offshore plant’ in English, and it also includes offshore energy facilities, observation facilities, and offshore buildings, but in the shipbuilding and offshore industry, it mainly refers to plants related to the development of offshore resources (oil, natural gas, etc.). These offshore plants faced many challenges in the early days due to their technical complexity, high cost, and uncertainty in the marine environment. However, in recent years, the offshore plant industry has been growing rapidly due to technological advancements and increased investment in marine resource exploration and development.
In the Korean movie “7 Gwanggu,” the entire movie is set in a factory-like facility. However, if you look closely, it is not just a factory, but a fixed factory floating on the sea, which is large enough to have a motorcycle scene in the middle of the movie. This is one type of fixed offshore plant. Think of it as a floating marine resource factory. Today, we’re going to talk about the most popular offshore plant, one that requires a high degree of reliability and technology, and costs up to $25 billion.
FPSO stands for Floating Production Storage and Off-loading, which literally translates to a ship-shaped factory that floats on the water, produces crude oil, stores it in huge tanks underneath the ship, and off-loads it via a carrier such as a tanker. As the name suggests, it is a structure that is suitable for the development of small deepwater oil fields because it can be moved freely from one place to another, from extraction to storage and offloading. In addition, the top of the FPSO is equipped with facilities necessary for self-power generation, such as refining crude oil and compressing gas, so it is easy to think of it as a moving refinery on the sea. Currently, research on FPSOs for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is also actively underway. These FPSOs are three to four times the size of Seoul’s Sangam World Cup stadium and are characterized by the fact that they are much cheaper to produce than onshore platforms because everything can be done offshore. By onshore platform, we mean a typical factory with processing and storage on land. The difference in production costs is due to the high cost of pipelining gas or oil from the seabed to shore.
A typical FPSO has no engines and cannot navigate under its own power, so it is anchored to an area for decades using tugs and then works for the rest of its life. In very bad sea conditions, such as glaciers in polar regions or windy, choppy waters, mining is not feasible due to safety concerns, so it is usually limited to temperate areas with favorable conditions. As mentioned earlier, they are not intended for sailing, so their appearance is different from a normal ship. While a normal ship has a streamlined shape with a slender front for less drag when sailing, an FPSO has a flat, angled front because it is not designed to sail, but to drill for oil. To overcome this inability to navigate on its own and the constraints of working conditions, Samsung Heavy Industries developed an FPSO that can move on its own. It also built the world’s first self-propelled FPSO with a specialized hull to avoid collisions with glaciers and ice floes in polar regions. Samsung Heavy Industries’ FPSOs are capable of refining 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day and have been designed to be robust and durable by calculating the worst waves, which can occur once in a hundred years. They are also equipped with controls that allow them to immediately stop work and evacuate under their own power in the event of an emergency.
Several factors are driving the growth of the offshore plant industry. First, the increasing need to develop offshore resources due to the depletion of land resources has led to a surge in demand for offshore plants. Second, the growing concern for protecting the marine environment has led to the need for eco-friendly and safe offshore resource development technologies. Third, the volatility of international oil prices has emphasized the importance of stable supply of marine resources, further emphasizing the role of offshore plants. These factors are driving the continuous growth of the offshore plant industry.
The need and characteristics of FPSOs have been discussed above. To reiterate, offshore plants have always been and will continue to be an area of global interest in the shipbuilding and offshore industry, with the global offshore plant market expected to reach $65 billion by 2030, according to global energy analyst Douglas-Westwood. In particular, the demand for FPSOs, which are high-value-added vessels among offshore plants, is steadily increasing. Korea’s shipbuilders are already known worldwide for their competitiveness, but we hope to become a leader in the FPSO industry with new technologies and creative methods. The offshore plant industry is a field where technological challenges and opportunities coexist, and continuous R&D and innovation are essential. Through this, we hope to position Korea as a global leader in offshore resource development.
