Philippe Levy, president of Hanwha Ocean's Energy Plant Unit (fifth from left), and Hasan Turkmen, president of ABS Far East Asia (sixth from left), pose with officials from both companies after an approval-in-principle ceremony. [Hanwha Ocean]
Philippe Levy, president of Hanwha Ocean's Energy Plant Unit (fifth from left), and Hasan Turkmen, president of ABS Far East Asia (sixth from left), pose with officials from both companies after an approval-in-principle ceremony. [Hanwha Ocean]

Hanwha Ocean said Tuesday it has received approval in principle from Norwegian classification society DNV for the design framework of its low-carbon standard FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading) unit.

The shipbuilder also secured approval in principle from American classification society ABS, along with a certificate for a Project Sustainability Execution Plan.

Environmental competitiveness has been emerging as a key evaluation criterion for FPSO project orders in the global market.

Major energy companies are tightening carbon-reduction requirements when awarding new projects, prompting leading offshore plant firms to expand their low-carbon design capabilities and sustainability execution frameworks.

In response, Hanwha Ocean has been building a low-carbon standard FPSO platform based on its existing standard FPSO design — one that systematizes applicable low-carbon technologies and can be configured to meet the specific requirements of individual projects.

Hanwha Ocean has been pursuing an FPSO standardization strategy for several years. In 2024, it developed a standard FPSO applicable across West Africa and obtained certification from ABS and French classification society Bureau Veritas. This year, it developed a standard FPSO optimized for South America and secured certification from both ABS and DNV.

The latest approvals give Hanwha Ocean a critical foundation for designing low-carbon standard FPSOs and applying them to actual projects.

DNV validated a low-carbon design framework that systematically incorporates emissions-reduction technologies for major greenhouse gas sources into FPSO design.

ABS confirmed a sustainability execution framework capable of implementing and managing carbon-reduction and energy-efficiency goals throughout the project delivery process.

Hanwha Ocean plans to apply the validated low-carbon design and project execution frameworks across customer consultations, bidding, front-end engineering and design, and overall project delivery going forward.

"We plan to develop the validated results into a reusable low-carbon technology package and sustainability execution framework for future projects, strengthening both our order competitiveness and project execution capabilities," a Hanwha Ocean official said.


keg@heraldcorp.com