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Greater Plutonio FPSO

Greater Plutonio is a purpose-built, ship-shaped FPSO processing oil and associated gas from deep-water Block 18 offshore Angola. First oil was achieved on 1 October 2007. The 310-metre vessel is spread-moored in roughly 1,300 metres of water, receives production from several subsea fields, stores stabilised crude in its hull and exports it to tankers through a remote offshore loading buoy.

Operator: BP

Status: Operational

Greater Plutonio FPSO platform photo

Image Source: BP Angola. (All rights belong to the original owner.)

Production: Oil & Gas

Operations start: 2007

Water depth: 1300 m

Country: Angola

Block: Block 18

Type: FPSO

Field

Greater Plutonio lies in Angola’s Block 18, approximately 160 kilometres north-west of Luanda, within the deep-water Lower Congo Basin. The original development combined the Plutonio, Cobalto, Paladio, Cromio and Galio discoveries; Platina was later tied back. Reservoirs comprise multiple stacked, commonly unconsolidated Oligocene turbidite sandstones separated by shale, within traps strongly influenced by regional salt withdrawal and deformation.

Facilities

The original Greater Plutonio development comprised 43 subsea wells: 20 oil producers, 20 water injectors and three gas injectors. Subsea trees, manifolds, well jumpers, control umbilicals and approximately 130 kilometres of in-field flowlines connect the five original fields to the FPSO. Production and injection services rise through a hybrid riser system incorporating bundled riser towers and steel catenary risers, selected to manage deep-water motions and flow-assurance loads. The topsides separate produced oil, associated gas and water, stabilise crude, compress gas and treat both produced water and seawater. High-pressure water-injection and gas-injection systems provide reservoir support. The vessel also carries fiscal metering, chemical injection, flare and relief systems, electrical generation, process and subsea controls, fire-and-gas detection, emergency shutdown, marine utilities and accommodation. Its electrical architecture was developed as an all-electric FPSO, with major process pumps and compressors driven electrically. The hull provides approximately 1.77 million barrels of crude storage. Twelve mooring lines connected to seabed anchor piles hold the vessel in a fixed heading; unlike a turret-moored FPSO, it does not weathervane. Stabilised oil is transferred from the FPSO through subsea offloading lines to a remote single-point-mooring loading buoy positioned away from the vessel. Export tankers moor at this buoy and receive crude through the permanent hose system. Associated gas not used for fuel is compressed for reinjection rather than exported through a dedicated sales-gas pipeline.

Greater Plutonio FPSO layout
Image Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Greater-Plutonio-Field-Location_fig1_254526305. (All rights belong to the original owner.)

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