Chinese yard cuts first steel on Equinor floater as Brazil project sanction nears

Chinese yard Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (DSIC) has cut first steel on a floating production, storage and offloading vessel destined for Norwegian oil giant Equinor's Bacalhau pre-salt development off Brazil.

The steel cut on Tuesday will see the floater completed in about 28 months.

It took place at a time when state-controlled Equinor plans is closing in on sanction of project.
 

“We are planning for sanctioning (of the project) early next year and start producing oil in 2024,” Trond Stokka Meling, vice president of Equinor, told delegates attending 2020 Norway China FPSO seminar held by Norwegian Energy Partners and Innovation Norway in Shanghai late last month.