Newly minted owner of veteran floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel Petrojarl I Amplus Energy, headquartered in Aberdeen, has tapped Spain’s Astican Shipyard in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to carry out a multimillion-dollar reactivation program on the unit.
The acquisition of the FPSO from UK-based Altera Infrastructure was announced in February of this year and just recently closed. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal marked Amplus Energy’s entry into the FPSO market.
FPSO Petrojarl I spent time developing no fewer than 10 fields, including its initial job on the Oseberg field off Norway in 1986. The vessel was redeployed nine additional times to produce North Sea oil volumes at fields including Troll, Balder, Kyle, and Glitne.
The vessel recently came off contract in Brazil where it worked on the Atlanta field as an early-production system.
Amplus has partnered with V.Ships Offshore which is providing the lay-up team and will support operations during the reactivation work at the Spanish facility.
“The addition of Petrojarl I is a transformational step for Amplus,” said Steve Gardyne, managing director at Amplus. “It takes us beyond our established position as a provider of field development floating solutions into direct asset ownership—a move that significantly enhances our strategic capabilities and strengthens our ability to meet growing client demand.”
According to Amplus, it is in active discussions with several field owners and operators regarding Petrojarl I’s next deployment. The vessel is well-suited for early-production system applications, extended well tests, and standalone marginal field developments.
The company has further plans to expand its fleet, with the ambition to become the “redeployment vessel contractor of choice.”
At the time of the acquisition, the company stressed the new asset would allow it to offer a “more flexible solution to the market, with a ready-to-deploy unit capable of meeting immediate and unique needs and demands.”
The Petrojarl I was not the only FPSO to change hands recently. Just after its sale was announced February, BW Offshore said in March it would be selling its FPSO BW Pioneer to Murphy Oil for $125 million. The parties also signed a 5-year operation and maintenance contract under which BW Offshore will continue to provide those services.
Murphy said the FPSO will remain at its current location, supporting operations at the Cascade field (Walker Ridge blocks 206 and 250) and Chinook field (Walker Ridge blocks 469 and 425) in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico.
