In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the demand for updating and maintenance services for on board systems in FPSO-type units, positioned at long distances from the coast. Dozens of these units were built in the mid-1990s and are now approaching to the end of their project life expectancy, usually around 25 years. As they are quite aging units, there are some updating needs on board.
Because there is an enormous difficulty in transporting the units to a complete docking in traditional coast drydock, operators around the world use as an alternative to bring the facilities of a shipyard to the oil exploration field, without interrupting production. Each on-site FPSO maintenance reduces considerably the operational costs. Naturally, this includes making available and maintaining hundreds of workers in the offshore environment as a floating shipyard. The main services are varied, including the replacement of old pipes, updating the air conditioning system of the accommodations, as well as improving the process plant of the stationary production vessel, returning to an optimum point of production, usually outdated by new technologies.
The essential services to preserve structural integrity of the FPSO are of equal importance. In this context, the use of Flotel-type vessels has become a concrete concept in the offshore industry. These floating hotels can provide an extra 500 vacancies on board that would hardly be accommodated in the FPSO unit itself. In general, Flotel units have a Dynamic Positioning system (DP) and can stay in close proximity beside the FPSO for long periods up to 6 months.
