Wood has entered an agreement with Brazilian national oil company Petrobras to deliver concept studies with designs and recommendations aimed at optimising performance and reducing emissions to support a future Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vision for the next decade.

The first study will explore design concepts of FPSO units with lower human exposure to risk and increased operational reliability, as this is an industry trend. The plan is to evaluate this concept for the entire unit and its practical application in one of the plant modules.

The second study will explore design concepts to convert the current Petrobras Reference Design into an FPSO without main electricity generation on the unit. Electrified by an external power source, offshore power generation hubs or integrated with the onshore system, this design will eliminate the biggest source of emissions onboard the traditional design.

“These studies developed cooperatively between Wood and Petrobras will consider the use of innovative solutions that target concepts, definitions and specifications still unexplored or not adopted in conventional FPSO projects,” said John Day, President of Oil, Gas and New Energies at Wood.

“Research and design projects in traditional hydrocarbon extraction will be critical to achieving net zero emission goals. Wood was selected by Petrobras to partner on this project because we bring a breadth of global offshore expertise, a diverse offering of capabilities and a portfolio of partnerships with industry technology providers.”

This project will be executed out of Wood’s Houston office, with local support in Rio de Janeiro, and will leverage the company’s marine systems and hull offshore expertise in Sandefjord, Norway. Wood will work collaboratively with engineers, scientists and researchers from Petrobras, many of whom are based at the Rio de Janeiro headquarters.

This headquarters location houses the engineering department for Surface Systems, responsible for all FPSO Conceptual and FEED designs. Additionally, it serves as the home of the Petrobras Cenpes Research Center, the largest oil research hub in the southern hemisphere.