FPSO Experience in Deepwater West Africa - The Design One, Build Two Strategy

Abstract The "Design One, Build Two" strategy has been employed for recent West Africa Deepwater Developments including the large Kizomba A and B developments in Angola and smaller EPS (Early Production System) Projects such as Yoho (Nigeria), Zafiro (Equatorial Guinea) and Xikomba (Angola).When properly managed and executed, the "Design One, Build Two" strategy reduces project cycle time and cost. Introduction The West Africa experience has identified key project conditions that are required for successful implementation of the "Design One, Build Two" strategy. These include use of the same:–Engineering design–Engineering and fabrication contractors–Fabrication yards–Vendors and suppliers–Project leadership teams–Project management systems From a project management point of view, the "Design One, Build Two" strategy requires different approaches as compared to traditional "stand-alone" projects. This paper explores some of these differences, including the:–Alignment of project schedules and execution plans–Required project management philosophy–Common safety and quality programs–A "No Design Change" philosophy–Use of duplicate engineering–Alignment of engineering and procurement deliverables with fabricator's construction methods–Use of real time capture of lessons learned The "Design One, Build Two" strategy, if properly planned, managed and executed, can optimize project economics for plays with multiple large developments that have similar geologic, geographic, economic and contractual elements. The learnings realized from West Africa Deepwater applications of the "Design One, Build Two" strategy can be applied in other large oil and gas development projects. Design One, Build Two Implementation The Kizomba A & B FPSO Example This paper uses construction of the Kizomba A & B Floating Production Storage Offload (FPSO) vessels as an example of the key success factors in making the "Design One, Build Two" strategy work. Cost and Schedule Impact For the Kizomba FPSOs, the "Design One, Build Two" strategy captured cost savings on the order of 10%. As illustrated in Figure 1, completion of Kizomba B tracked five months ahead of Kizomba A. Fabrication on the Kizomba A Project fell up to 30% behind schedule, resulting in multiple execution plan adjustments and multiple recovery plans. The Kizomba B FPSO consistently tracked the original execution plan, progress never fell behind the plan and no recovery plans were required.