Desalination plant aboard FPSO off Angolan coast

"Girassol", the world's biggest floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) ship, is stationed 150km off the coast of Angola in Block 17 of the oilfield. The Bremen company's desalination plant will be installed aboard the FPSO in the next few weeks to care for reliable and independent water supply. 70,000 litres of drinking water a day is produced from seawater, and thus provides a reliable and independent water supply.


Block 17 is located in deep water 150km off the Angolan coast. The oil extraction operations are part of a contract between the national oil company Sanangol and an operator consortium which includes the Total oil company. With dimensions of 300m x 60m x 31m and a storage capacity of two million barrels of oil, the "Girassol" is one of the world's largest FPSO ships. The oil is pumped through hi-tech flowlines and at regular intervals offloaded into tankers.