2.1.4.4Fleet

Management Approach

The ‘Ocean Infrastructure’ value platform encompasses a fleet of 15 FPSOs and 1 semi-submersible unit, geographically distributed across the globe. To support the energy transition, the fleet aims to provide traditional hydrocarbon energy with the lowest possible carbon emissions during the production phase. The fleet adheres to, and applies, the management approach of the wider SBM Offshore organization. Key to this are policies, commitments and mechanisms described in sections 2.1.2 and 2.1.4. There is a sharp focus on continuous improvement. This is achieved by identifying learning opportunities and embedding the resultant lessons into SBM Offshore’s corporate memory; the Group Enterprise Management System (GEMS) and Group Technical Standards (GTS).

An experienced workforce comprising of more than 3,600 personnel ensures the safe, reliable and efficient operation of SBM Offshore’s offshore assets, generating predictable and sustainable revenue and operating cash-flows for the business.

The SBM Offshore fleet had the following historic performance:

  • Over 7.2 billion barrels of production cumulatively to date.
  • 10,840 oil offloads cumulatively to date.
  • 388.4 cumulative contract years of operational experience1.

SBM Offshore employs a proactive, risk-based approach to asset management, leveraging digital reliability and integrity solutions to automate surveillance, enabling a more optimized deployment of resources and increased efficiency and availability of safety, production and marine systems. To ensure that SBM Offshore’s activities have a positive and sustainable impact on the local communities in which SBM Offshore is present, the fleet has several programs, aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, focused on wellbeing and personnel development, emission reduction and protecting the environment.

FLEET PERFORMANCE

HSSE and Process Safety Performance

There has been an exceptionally high volume of activity in 2023 due to a number of integrity campaigns performed across the fleet. These campaigns leveraged a large external workforce and this, combined with the type of activities performed, has, in part, led to higher incident rates in the fleet this year.

The majority of these incidents have been relatively minor in nature and the number of events with potential for significant injury or Process Safety consequence have reduced as a result of ongoing focus on leading activities targeting areas of most risk.

Initiatives and developments to enhance operational safety, process safety, quality and efficiency were progressed throughout the year:

  • Ongoing deployment of the health and wellbeing program.
  • Maintained focus on Process Safety Management, barrier management and enhanced Marine Safety.
  • Development and piloting of an enhanced Operational Assurance Program.
  • Implementation of a revised online Competence Assurance System.

Development of Operations

  • In 2023, two new units were delivered:
    • FPSO Prosperity joined the fleet in Guyana, achieving first oil on November 14, 2023.
    • FPSO Sepetiba joined the fleet on January 2, 2024, achieving first oil on December 31, 2023.
  • In Brazil, decommissioning of FPSO Capixaba continued, the unit is scheduled to depart Brazilian waters early in 2024.
  • In Angola, SBM Offshore signed two Share Purchase Agreements with its partner Sonangol EP for the acquisition of Sonangol’s equity shares in the lease and operating entities related to FPSOs N’goma, Saxi Batuque and Mondo.
  • In Guyana, SBM Offshore and ExxonMobil Guyana implemented a new integrated operating model:
    • On May 2, 2023, SBM Offshore announced it has signed a 10-year Operations and Maintenance Enabling Agreement with Esso Exploration & Production Guyana Ltd. for the operation and maintenance of the fleet of FPSOs in Guyana.
    • A transformation program was established to develop and implement an integrated operating model supported by fully defined and sustainable organization construct, processes and tools.
    • This strategy supports SBM Offshore’s long-term business vision in Guyana, enabling SBM Offshore to perform local and sustainable investments in people and infrastructure as well as to deploy its digital and operational technologies to the Guyana fleet.
  • In Porto, the Operations tactical center, implemented in 2022, became more established in 2023 with continued growth and increased remote support capabilities.
  • The Digital Function has been consolidated to facilitate development of digital solutions and to unlock synergies in IT and Digital Ecosystem across the full product life-cycle.
  • The deployment of SBM Offshore’s new ERP system continued in Guyana. The system is now generating structured data that is used to identify further efficiency and performance improvement opportunities.
  • SBM Offshore’s 5-year Robotics Program, initiated in 2022, now has a dedicated team that has worked on three initiatives this year, of which one is in co-development with its client. The program aims to create a new technical discipline that will develop and deploy robotics technology in the fleet, following three key objectives: improve human safety, optimize working practices and enhance asset integrity.
  • A new Brownfield Project Services (BPS) product line was formed to provide the following services in support of SBM Offshore’s and its clients’ fleets:
    • Brownfield project execution
    • Fleet support services
    • Production optimization feasibility studies
    • Shutdown management and planning
    • Decommissioning and responsible recycling services

BPS will leverage SBM Offshore’s project execution expertise to serve the needs of its growing fleet. Benefits already realized include significant production increases on FPSOs Liza Destiny and Liza Unity through debottlenecking assessments and upgrades. BPS is also conducting tank repair works onboard FPSO Cidade de Anchieta.

Asset Management

As offshore installations age, the original coating systems become less effective, leading to an increase in the integrity scope over time. Capacity to accommodate resources onboard is limited and maintaining the integrity of aging assets is a major challenge for the industry. Production on FPSO Mondo was shut in for 5 months to perform integrity inspections and repair scope that had accumulated through the COVID-19 period.

SBM Offshore is implementing the Pro-active Integrity Program for the fleet to avoid reoccurrence and to instill a strong integrity culture in which SBM Offshore prioritizes compliance with inspection schedules, implementation of new technologies and corrosion prevention.

The new Asset Management Philosophy introduced in 2022 was further developed in 2023 based on initial feedback. The main purpose is defined as providing maximum availability of the Production, Marine and Safety systems on SBM Offshore's assets, by ensuring reliability and integrity through the lines of defense model as follows:

  1. Predict: leveraging digital and artificial intelligence solutions to perform surveillance and early identification of potential anomalies.
  2. Prevent: enriched asset management tools to improve the quality and efficiency of maintenance and inspection activities.
  3. Recover: robust anomaly management and response to ensure that recovery from events is addressed and in the shortest possible time.
  4. Improve: continuous improvement through feedback of operational experience into the design process for new builds and the operating fleet.

The main strategic focus in 2023 was to optimize the maintenance and inspection workload offshore in order to free up resources to perform hull and piping integrity inspection and fabric maintenance campaigns on all assets. The optimization resulted in a 30% reduction in maintenance work orders and a positive trend of compliance with the class hull inspection program can be observed.

Responsible Recycling

SBM Offshore commits to the safe and environmentally sound recycling of assets at the end of their lifecycle, performed in full compliance with SBM Offshore’s Responsible Recycling Policy, applying – amongst others – the principles of the EU Ship Recycling Regulation 1257/2013 or equivalent.

During 2023, two projects were in progress; the decommissioning and preparing for recycling of FPSO Capixaba and the recycling of the Deep Panuke MOPU PFC. Details on these projects and the management approach to decommissioning are provided in section 2.1.12.

FUTURE

New Fast4Ward® assets will join the fleets in Brazil and Guyana, leading to growth offshore and onshore:

  • In Guyana, FPSO Prosperity has arrived and preparations are ongoing for the arrival of FPSO ONE GUYANA in 2025. SBM Offshore continues to expand and embed its presence in-country, working with the local community on several social and environmental projects.
  • In Brazil, the three new assets (FPSO Sepetiba, FPSO Almirante Tamandaré and FPSO Alexandre de Gusmão) will be supported from the Rio office and preparations are already in place for FPSO Sepetiba in 2023.

SBM Offshore will continue to develop digital solutions to enhance its surveillance and predictive capabilities. These digital solutions are being utilized to reduce the scope required to maintain the reliability of SBM Offshore’s assets. This will enable more resources to be deployed on integrity inspection, fabric maintenance and repair scopes. In parallel, proactive actions are being taken to reduce corrosion on SBM Offshore’s assets and consequently reduce the overall fabric maintenance and repair scopes.

SBM Offshore has set long-term targets for emission reduction in downstream leased assets that will support SBM Offshore’s contributions to climate change mitigation and path to net zero, as explained in sections 1.4.3 and 2.1.7. One of the commitments is to engage with clients and joint venture partners to ensure the fleet is aligned with a path towards net zero, as per SDG 7 commitment explained in section 2.2.