What is the difference between FPSO & FSO Vessels?

By Kenneth | October 5, 2019

FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading)

FPSO is a comprehensive large-scale offshore oil production base that integrates oil and gas separation, oily wastewater treatment, power generation, heat supply, crude oil product storage and transportation, and integrates personnel housing and production command system.

FPSO vessel has the advantages of strong wind and wave resistance, wide water depth, large storage or offloading capacity, transfer ability and re-usability. It is widely used in deep seas, shallow seas and marginal oil fields far from the coast. This development has become the mainstream production method for offshore oil and gas field development.

The FPSO usually consists of a complete oil recovery, crude oil processing, oil storage and offloading system with an oil rig or sub-sea production system. The operation principle is accepting crude oil from sub-sea oil wells through submarine oil pipelines and processing them on board. It is then stored in the cargo tank and finally transported to the shuttle tanker via the offloading system.