SBM Offshore is evaluating wind-assisted towing for the floating production, storage and offloading vessel it is building for deployment offshore Suriname, according to a report by Offshore Energy.

The Monaco-headquartered, Amsterdam-listed FPSO specialist is looking at fitting wind propulsion technology to the tow-out of the unit as it moves from the shipyard to its field location on the South American margin. The initiative targets fuel consumption and emissions during the ocean transit, one of the more carbon-intensive phases of an FPSO's lifecycle before first oil.

Wind-assisted propulsion has gained traction in the maritime sector over the past several years, with suction sails, rotor sails and rigid wing installations appearing on tankers, bulk carriers and, increasingly, offshore units under tow. Applying the technology to an FPSO tow-out would mark a further extension of the concept into the offshore production segment, where tow durations and vessel sizes are both substantial.

The Suriname-bound unit forms part of the wave of deepwater development activity now building across the Guyana-Suriname basin, where operators have sanctioned a string of high-capacity floaters to develop discovered resources in water depths beyond 1,000 metres. SBM Offshore has built its recent order book around exactly this class of project, with turnkey and lease-and-operate FPSO contracts concentrated in South America.

Offshore Energy did not specify in its headline report which towing contractor or wind-propulsion vendor would be involved, the anticipated tow route, or the expected fuel and emissions savings from the installation. Details on timing — including whether the wind-assist system would be fitted before departure from the construction yard — also remain to be confirmed.

For SBM Offshore, the move fits a broader decarbonisation push across its fleet and newbuild programme. The company has previously flagged work on emissions reduction for both construction and operations phases, an area of growing weight in tender evaluations as operators in Suriname and neighbouring Guyana face pressure to lower the carbon intensity of barrel-heavy deepwater developments.

The watch item: confirmation of the wind-assist installation, the towing schedule, and the yard departure date for the Suriname-bound floater — milestones that will indicate whether the industry's first large-scale wind-assisted FPSO tow proceeds as studied.