Due to the depletion of onshore resources, offshore installations are attracting attention. In particular, FPSOs are emerging as key technologies for the development of marine resources and are leading the future of the shipbuilding industry. We look at the growth drivers and prospects for the offshore equipment industry.
As the world’s demand for energy has grown, there has been a growing sense that onshore resources are running out. This has led to a shift in interest from land resources to marine resources and a growing interest in offshore facilities. Offshore facilities include offshore energy facilities, observation facilities, and offshore buildings, but in the shipbuilding and marine industry, they mainly refer to facilities related to the development of offshore resources (oil, natural gas, etc.). These offshore facilities initially faced many challenges due to their technical complexity, high cost, and uncertainty of the marine environment. However, in recent years, the offshore equipment industry has grown rapidly due to technological advances and increased investment in the exploration and development of offshore resources.
In the Korean movie “7th District,” the entire movie takes place in a factory-like facility. But if you look closely, it is not just a factory, but a fixed factory floating on the sea, and it is large enough to include a motorcycle scene in the middle of the movie. This is a kind of stationary offshore plant. It will be easier to understand if you think of it as a floating factory for marine resources. We will learn about the FPSO, which is the most popular of all offshore facilities, requires a high degree of stability and technology, and is worth as much as $25 billion.
FPSO stands for Floating Production Storage and Offloading. It is a ship-shaped factory that floats on the water (Floating), produces crude oil (Production), stores it in huge tanks under the ship (Storage), and off-loads the stored oil to carriers such as oil tankers (Off-loading). As the literal meaning of this character suggests, it is a structure suitable for the development of small deepwater oil fields because it can perform all the functions of crude oil production, storage, and offloading at sea, and it can be moved freely. In addition, all the equipment necessary for self-production, such as crude oil refining and gas compression, is installed in the upper part of the FPSO, so it is easy to think of it as a “mobile oil refinery on the sea”. In addition to oil, FPSOs for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) are also being actively researched. This FPSO is three to four times the size of the World Cup stadium in Sangam, Seoul, and is characterized by the fact that all operations can be carried out at sea, making production costs much lower than on land platforms. The term “land platform” is used here to refer to a general factory that processes and stores on land. The reason for the difference in production costs is that it is expensive to install pipelines from the gas or oil extracted from the seabed to land.
Since a typical FPSO cannot sail on its own because it has no engine, it is towed by a tug and anchored in a specific area for decades before being used until the end of its life. When sea conditions are very bad, such as when glaciers form in the polar regions or when there is a lot of wind and waves, it is difficult to mine for safety reasons, so the work is usually only done in temperate regions where the conditions are right. As mentioned earlier, it is not intended for navigation, so it differs from ordinary ships in appearance. While a normal ship has a streamlined shape with a sharp front to reduce drag when sailing, an FPSO has a flat front because its purpose is not to sail but to drill for crude oil. To overcome these limitations, Samsung Heavy Industries developed an FPSO that can move on its own. In addition, the hull was specially designed to avoid collisions with icebergs or ice floes in polar regions, making it the world’s first self-propelled FPSO. Samsung Heavy Industries’ FPSO can refine 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day and is designed to withstand the worst waves that occur once a century. It also has a control function that allows it to stop operations immediately and evacuate on its own in the event of an emergency.
Several factors are contributing to the growth of the offshore equipment industry. First, the demand for offshore equipment has skyrocketed as the need to develop marine resources has increased due to the depletion of land resources. Second, as interest in protecting the marine environment has increased, the need for environmentally friendly and safe marine resource development technologies has emerged. Third, as the stable supply of marine resources has become important due to the volatility of international oil prices, the role of offshore facilities has been further emphasized. These factors are driving the continued growth of the offshore equipment industry.
We have discussed the need and characteristics of FPSOs above. To reiterate, offshore facilities are an area that has been and will continue to be of great interest to the global shipbuilding and marine industries. According to global energy analysis agency Douglas-Westwood, the offshore equipment market is expected to grow to $65 billion by 2030. In particular, the demand for FPSOs, which are the highest-value vessels among offshore installations, is growing steadily. As a result, this field is emerging as a promising area for the future shipbuilding industry, and the competitiveness of Korean shipbuilders is already known worldwide, but we hope that they will continue to lead in FPSOs with new technologies and creative methods. The offshore equipment industry is a field where technological challenges and opportunities coexist, and continuous research and development and innovation are essential. Through this, we hope that Korea will be able to establish itself as a global leader in the development of marine resources.
