Yinson’s latest FPSO to begin production in June

by **Cals** Tue 11 Mar 2014, 11:31

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Siow Chen Ming of theedgemalaysia.com

Tuesday, 11 March 2014 09:29

KUALA LUMPUR: PTSC Lam Son, the latest addition to Yinson Holdings Bhd’s fleet of floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels, is scheduled to sail off on March 23 from Keppel Shipyard in Tuas, Singapore, heading to Vietnam waters to prepare for its commercial production in June.
Costing about US$400 million (RM1.3 billion), the FPSO unit has been undergoing conversion and engineering works at Keppel Shipyard over the past 22 months. Work on the vessel was completed earlier than expected, as it normally would take 24 months or more.
Yinson and Petrovietnam Technical Services Corp (PTSC), which is a unit of PetroVietnam — Vietnam’s national oil company — own 49:51 of the FPSO. Both take pride in the vessel’s early completion as well as its stellar health and safety record over an accident-free seven million man hours.
The naming ceremony of PTSC Lam Son was held last Saturday in Tuas, and it was launched by PTSC general director and member of board of directors Phan Thanh Tung and Yinson chairman and managing director Lim Han Weng. Dignitaries from Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore were also present at the event.
The FPSO has been chartered to Lam Son Joint Operating Co (LSJOC) to work on the oilfields off the coast of Vietnam near Vung Tau. LSJOC is a joint operating company between PetroVietnam and Petronas Carigali Overseas Sdn Bhd, a unit of Petroliam Nasional Bhd.
FPSO is a floating oil production facility that receives and processes raw oil from offshore platforms. The oil is stored in the vessel and then offloaded into a tanker or into a pipeline.
PTSC Lam Son is one of four FPSOs in Yinson’s fleet. The company’s other three FPSOs, which came with the takeover of Norway-based Fred Olsen Production, are currently operating in West African waters.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 11, 2014.