FPSO leasing firm BW Offshore mentioned Thursday that the hull of BW Opal, one of many largest FPSO hulls ever constructed and destined for Santos’ Barossa gasoline challenge in Australia, had set sail from a yard in South Korea and was en path to Singapore for topside integration.
“On October 28, 2023, at 11:30 local time, the newbuild hull for the BW Opal FPSO, which is based on BW Offshore’s RapidFramework concept, started tow from the SK Oceanplant (SKOP) yard in South Korea, to the integration shipyard in Singapore, where it is expected to arrive later this month,” BW Offshore mentioned.
The hull has an general size of 358 meters and a width of 64 meters.
The hull has been constructed over the past 22 months, beginning with the primary metal cuttin on November 24, 2021.
The hull is in-built six giga blocks, which have been joined within the floating dock. The hull was launched in June 2023, and subsequently, dwelling quarters, engine casing, and topsides course of pipe racks have been put in. 
Credit: BW Offshore
In addition to metal, 670 kilometers of cable has been pulled and round 30,000 pipe spools have been put in to finish building, mechanical completion and pre-commissioning actions.
Upon arrival in Seatrium yard in Singapore, absolutely accomplished course of modules, E-house and Turret modules might be lifted onto the hull to begin integration actions. After completion of integration and commissioning, the absolutely commissioned BW Opal FPSO will begin its voyage to Australia to begin manufacturing within the first half of 2025.
The Final Investment Decision (FID) for the FPSO for the Barossa challenge was confirmed by Santos and its companions on March 30, 2021, with a providers contract together with Operation & Maintenance (O&M) with a agency interval of 15 years, and 10 years of choices.
The Barossa gasoline discipline is situated 300 kilometers offshore Darwin in northern Australia and might be developed through the BW Opal FPSO with six subsea manufacturing wells, in-field amenities, and a gasoline export pipeline tied into the Bayu-Undan to Darwin pipeline system that provides gasoline to Darwin LNG. BW Offshore is chargeable for engineering, procurement, building, set up, and operation of the FPSO.
