Singapore shipyard group Seatrium has been awarded a letter of intent by energy supermajor BP for early engineering works pending the finalisation of a definitive contract for engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning work for the Kaskida floating production unit (FPU) project. Comprising a single topside module supported by a four-column semi-submersible hull, the Kaskida FPU is supported by subsea production wells located in a water depth of approximately 1,800 meters. The EPC contract award is subject to mutually agreed terms and conditions, management approval, and the final investment decision by BP. Kaskida was discovered back in 2006 and is estimated to hold four billion barrels of oil, but the technology needed to develop it didn’t exist at the time since the oil was under a thick layer of salt and very high pressure and temperature. Several years after the Kaskida discovery, the Deepwater Horizon rig incident occurred which means that if BP approves Kaskida in the second half of 2024 – as planned – it would be BP’s first new project in the Gulf of Mexico since the disaster. According to last year’s statement from BP, which holds 100% of the discovery, the price tag for the development of Kaskida should be in the region of $15bn to $20bn. Industry experts believe that the field is now accessible using eighth-generation drillships with BOPs that can handle a force of 20,000 psi – something that is expected at the Kaskida discovery. These rigs, such as the Deepwater Titan and Deepwater Atlas, have started entering into service in 2022. Seatrium recently won a contract worth over $8bn to build two FPSO vessels which will work on Petrobras’ Atapu and Sépia fields. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1_95_0_1_2'); }); TagsSingapore United Kingdom United States