Last year, SBM Offshore rolled out the Fast4Ward concept, an alternative to conversion floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) units that the company says can shave hundreds of millions of dollars off a project’s costs and reduce delivery time by as much as 12 months (Upstream Technology 2/2016).

The concept strikes a familiar theme among engineering companies, several of which have responded to the oil price tumble with scaled-down, simpler platforms that incorporate standardisation where possible.

SBM