Netherlands-based SBM Offshore, a supplier of the design, building, set up, and operation of offshore floating amenities, has kicked off the development section of a disconnectable turret mooring (DTM) for a floating storage and offloading (FSO) unit, destined to be deployed at a deepwater oil undertaking 30 km south of the Mexico-U.S. maritime border.

Due to a contract secured in 2024 with Woodside Petróleo Operaciones de México, a subsidiary of Australia’s heavyweight Woodside Vitality, SBM Offshore was put in command of developing and leasing an FSO for 20 years throughout which it will be used on the Trion deepwater oil subject growth within the Perdido Belt of the western Gulf of Mexico/Gulf of America.

After embarking on the China building section, SBM Offshore highlighted: “We’re extraordinarily proud to be a part of the primary deepwater undertaking in Mexico, and to collaborate with our consumer Woodside Vitality once more — leveraging our undertaking execution experience and constructing on our observe file of disconnectable turret mooring programs. Thrilling occasions forward! We’re proud to be a part of this revolutionary undertaking.”

In accordance with the Dutch big, the ceremony to mark the primary metal minimize of the disconnectable turret mooring system for the Trion FSO undertaking was held on February 12, 2025, at Cosco Shipyard in Qidong, representing the start of the development section and a brand new chapter for the undertaking.

Nicolas Mac Ferran, Mexico Nation Supervisor at SBM Offshore, commented: “The undertaking’s disconnectable FSO Trion has formally entered the development section! Right here in Mexico, now we have the necessary activity of getting ready to put in the FSO at a depth of two,500 meters, and function it safely for at the very least 20 years. Let’s go all out!”

The FSO, which can function 180 kilometers off the Mexican shoreline and 30 kilometers south of the US/Mexico maritime border, will likely be based mostly on a Suezmax-type hull and outfitted with a DTM system. This unit, slated to begin operation on the Trion undertaking in 2028, will likely be able to storing round 950,000 barrels of crude oil. Woodside Vitality operates the Trion undertaking with PEMEX as its accomplice.

As soon as the ultimate funding resolution (FID) was taken in June 2023, the Australian big obtained a stamp of approval from the Mexican regulator, Comision Nacional de Hidrocarburos (CNH), in August 2023 for its subject growth plan (FDP). Fuel, which isn’t reinjected or used on the FPU, is ready to be delivered to the home pure fuel community by a subsea fuel pipeline.

The Trion undertaking comes with an estimated whole capital expenditure of $7.2 billion and is portrayed as the primary deepwater growth in Mexico at a water depth of two,500 meters. With a manufacturing capability of 100,000 barrels per day, the Trion FPU will likely be linked to a 950,000-barrel capability FSO unit.

A number of gamers have secured jobs on the undertaking, together with Wooden and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, which assigned a commissioning contract for the FPU to Houston-based Gate Vitality. Corinth Pipeworks can be on the checklist of contracted corporations alongside COSCO Delivery & Guangzhou Salvage Heavy Transport (CSGS) and AXTech.

SBM Offshore disclosed to Offshore Vitality that round 40 floating manufacturing, storage, and offloading (FPSO) alternatives would spring up over three years, with 16 anticipated to be inside its goal area.

The Dutch firm has been engaged on its emissionZERO program since 2020 to pursue near-zero emissions via a near-zero FPSO, which it describes as the primary milestone and a key pillar of the emission-zero roadmap. 

The agency’s acquisition of a minority stake in Norway’s Ocean-Energy is anticipated to propel ahead its decarbonization journey, because the Norwegian agency spotlights the idea of ‘Blue Energy Hub’ to generate electrical energy utilizing fuel generators with carbon seize and storage (CCS) included to curb CO2 emissions.