The American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) has issued a Basic Design Review certification to Hanwha Ocean for a standardized floating production, storage and offloading vessel design developed specifically for the South American and West African deepwater market, along with a series of related sustainability reviews covering the same design.

Scope of the Certification

The Basic Design Review certification covers Hanwha Ocean's front-end engineering design for the FPSO and reflects ABS' review of the unit's core design documentation and technical standards across key systems, including the hull, topsides and mooring arrangement.

In addition to the Basic Design Review, ABS issued an approval in principle for the FPSO design, which incorporates design features intended to satisfy the SUSTAIN-2 notation requirements. ABS also issued a Statement of Fact for Hanwha Ocean's Project Sustainability Execution Plan, known as the PSEP.

According to ABS, the PSEP extends the sustainability framework into systematic project execution by linking sustainability requirements with engineering deliverables, key performance indicators, responsibilities and verification evidence.

Together, the reviews are designed to support Hanwha Ocean's broader development of what the company is calling its Low Carbon Standard FPSO, building sustainability execution into a standardized platform intended for future project applications.

A Repeatable, Scalable Platform Concept

The design has been engineered as a repeatable, standardized floating platform, with the stated aim of enhancing the efficiency and scalability of traditional FPSO development approaches. Hanwha Ocean intends to apply the design to large-scale projects in South America and West Africa, two regions where deepwater field development activity continues to grow.

The development of a standardized FPSO design carries practical implications for project timelines and engineering expenditure.

By starting from a pre-approved platform concept rather than a fully bespoke vessel design, operators could potentially shorten project schedules and reduce the engineering costs typically associated with FPSO procurement and delivery. The certification process undertaken with ABS is structured to provide that pre-approved foundation, giving future project counterparties a degree of technical certainty before detailed engineering and contracting work begins.

Connection to West Africa Pre-FEED Work

The ABS certification follows Hanwha Ocean's completion of a separate pre-front-end engineering design for deepwater oil and gas fields in West Africa, for which ABS had previously issued an approval in principle.

That earlier work appears to have laid part of the technical groundwork for the standardized design now receiving the Basic Design Review certification, reflecting a progressive engagement between the two organizations across multiple stages of engineering development.

The sequencing of these certifications points to an effort by Hanwha Ocean to position itself for project opportunities in West Africa in particular, a market where several large deepwater developments have been advancing across multiple countries in recent years.

Sustainability Framework Built Into the Design

A notable aspect of the certification package is the degree to which sustainability requirements have been integrated into the design from an early stage. The SUSTAIN-2 notation, for which the FPSO design incorporates relevant features, represents a classification-level recognition of sustainability performance.

The accompanying Project Sustainability Execution Plan goes a step further by embedding those requirements into the project execution framework itself, tying sustainability objectives to engineering deliverables and verification processes rather than treating them as a separate compliance overlay.

This approach reflects a broader trend in offshore project development, where classification societies, shipyards and operators are increasingly working to formalize sustainability commitments within the engineering and contracting process rather than addressing them after design completion.

The Statement of Fact issued by ABS for the PSEP represents a formal acknowledgment of that plan within the classification framework.

Industry Context

The certification highlights the ongoing effort within the offshore industry to industrialize FPSO delivery. Historically, FPSOs have been among the most complex and bespoke offshore assets, with each unit typically designed and engineered to the specific requirements of a given field.

That approach has contributed to cost overruns and schedule delays on a number of high-profile deepwater projects in recent years, prompting renewed interest in standardized design platforms that can be adapted for multiple field developments with less repetition of front-end engineering work. Hanwha Ocean's Low Carbon Standard FPSO concept represents one such effort to bring greater repeatability to the FPSO market.

The involvement of ABS at the basic design review and approval in principle stage means that the design has cleared a significant technical review milestone before any specific project application has been selected, which is the fundamental premise behind the standardized design approach.

Demand for FPSOs has remained strong in regions including South America, West Africa and parts of Asia, driven by continued deepwater exploration success and the sanctioning of major field development projects.

Brazil, Guyana and several West African nations have been particularly active in recent years, and the pipeline of potential FPSO contracts in those regions has attracted attention from shipyards and engineering contractors seeking to position themselves for future work.