Petrobras FPSO P-70 cables break during anchorage operation, strong winds pushed the unit to Niterói’s shore in Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, at night January 30
We recently reported the news of Port of Rio de Jainero welcoming The Netherlands based maritime contractor Boskalis‘ semi-submersible vessel ‘Boka Vanguard‘ carrying FPSO P-70 from China to Brazil.
FPSO offloaded (floated off) from Boka Vanguard in one of the anchoring areas in Guanabara Bay and later broke off lines during anchorage operation and ran aground, near the seaside boulevard, according to some reports.
On Thursday 30th January night, FPSO P-70 suffered displacement in Niterói (Rio de Janeiro), amidst a storm and strong winds that hit the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro.
Shortly after the incident, videos and images of FPSO near the edge of coast circulated on social networks.
The mooring cables broke during the storm and the FPSO ended up very close to the shore in Niterói, requiring the tugboats to pull the unit back to a safe distance, according to reports from Pilotage.
Strong winds and heavy rain battered Rio de Janeiro last night, which added up to the broken lines, pushing the heavy FPSO out of control and slowly moved to shore.
Petrobras is investigating the causes of the occurrence.
In case of grounding, FPSO will under hull inspection from flag state and class society before given the clearance, according to Nauticus Live team experience.
FPSO P-70 has the capacity to produce 150,000 barrels of oil and 6 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.
FPSO will be deployed in the Pre-Salt complex of Santos Basin. The P-70 is part of the series of replicating platforms, which currently account for part of the production in the pre-salt, with the operation already started in the units P-66, P-67, P-68 and P-69.
