Petrobras Program for the Development of Normally Unattended Facilities

Abstract

Abstract By the end of 2020 Petrobras created a strategic program with the ambition to have a large FPSO normally operated without human assistance by 2030. The program was denominated POB0, reflecting the target of having zero People on Board in our future production platforms offshore. This concept, usually denominated "Normally Unattended Facility", has been studied by many companies in the last years, with the objective of reducing the operational costs (OPEX) and the amount of man hours exposed to risk on offshore operations. So, the program has also the objective to continuously reduce the amount of people working on our offshore production facilities currently in operation. The program comprises nine different initiatives that cover the areas of Offshore Platforms Manning; Remote Operations and Digitalization; Optimization of Work Processes; Equipment for NUF concept; Subsea Processing; Operations with other Vessels; Materials and Corrosion; Robotics and drones; and Regulation Barriers. After some months of work, the program has already produced many interesting results, such as: identification of activities that prevent NUF concept; proposals to optimize functions onboard; more reliable materials and coatings selected for new projects; successful testing of robots and drones on floating units in operation; identification of regulation barriers. Nonetheless, the program initiatives have also identified many technology gaps that must be approached by the industry in order to allow the design and operation of a complex unattended floating production unit in the future. So, there is still a long road ahead of us in this exciting project.