13 July 2023
Hanwha Ocean (CEO Hyuk-Woong Kwon, Vice Chairman) and South Gyeongsang Customs (Customs Director Young-Hwan Son) are working to strengthen the competitiveness of the domestic shipbuilding industry through public-private cooperation.
Hanwha Ocean announced on the 13th that it is accelerating production of the world's longest floating production storage and off-loading (FPSO) with active administrative support from the South Gyeongsang Customs.
The floating crude oil production storage and offloading facility (FPSO), which Hanwha Ocean won an order from Petrobras, a Brazilian state-run company in 2021, is the world's largest FPSO with length, width, and height of about 345m, 60m, and 34m, respectively. It produces about 180,000 barrels of crude oil per day and has a storage capacity of about 2 million barrels.
In the meantime, to build such a large structure, blocks have been moved to the dock with an offshore crane and loaded. The weight of one block of the FPSO to be built this time reaches 7,000 tons. In order to move a huge block weighing half of the population of Geoje City (average adult 60kg), two offshore cranes must be connected in parallel, and one-time equipment worth billions of won must be manufactured for lifting. had to do
However, Hanwha Ocean easily solved this problem by seeking cooperation from the South Gyeongsang Customs. It uses a self-propelled ship, a dedicated ship that carries blocks from abroad. A method of loading large blocks onto a self-propelled vessel, moving them, and loading them on a dock was applied.
According to the Customs Act, there is a prohibition clause that 'international trade ships and self-propelled ships cannot load or transport blocks, which are domestic goods, in domestic ports.' However, South Gyeongsang Customs thoroughly reviewed the exception clause that 'domestic goods can be loaded onto international trade vessels with the permission of the head of the customs office' and utilized the 'report of moving to the berth in the port' system to transport blocks through the sea within Okpo Port. The customs administration was actively supported for loading and transportation. As a result, Hanwha Ocean secured work stability when transporting super-large blocks and was able to save 7 billion won in mounting costs.
This is not the first case of active administrative support by the South Gyeongsang Customs. Last year, we cooperated to launch a floating oil and gas production unit (FPU) out to sea. The public-private partnership between Hanwha Ocean and South Gyeongsang Customs is drawing attention in the global shipbuilding market as a model case.
An official from Hanwha Ocean said, “We are grateful for the active administrative support of the customs office,” and “we will make efforts to ensure that K-Chosun firmly maintains its position as a global leader through continuous public-private cooperation.”