A review of trends in floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) technology is presented, using an extensive database of past, current and planned developments around the world. The review commences with the first FPSOs in the mid-1970s, explores the stimuli for FPSO development in Asia, in particular, over the next two decades and their widespread acceptance in the North Sea in the late-1990s. Current and future FPSO innovations in both hardware and applications are discussed against this background.

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