The world's first Floating, Drilling, Production, Storage and Offloading vessel (FDPSO), left the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore on January 24, 2009. After a short stay at anchorage, it departed for the Republic of Congo where it was deployed at Murphy West Africa Ltd's deepwater Azurite development in the Mer Profonde Sud Block.

Murphy West Africa, Ltd., Societe Nationale Des Petroles du Congo (SNPC) and PA Resources, AB developed the Azurite Field located in block Mer Profonde Sud in 1380m of water, offshore The Republic of Congo. The Azurite discovery well was drilled in January 2005 and first oil was planned for the second quarter of 2009.

In November 2007, Prosafe was awarded a $400 million contract for the conversion and operation of a Floating Drilling, Production, Storage and Offloading unit. Named the Azurite, this first of its kind FDPSO with drilling capabilities incorporates a design that is cost efficient and effective for drilling and producing deepwater fields. The field development consists of a spread moored Floating Drilling Production Storage and Offloading unit (FDPSO) tied to a subsea manifold. The concept of integrating a drilling unit into a FPSO is unique and involved cutting a moonpool in the vessel hull and mounting a land drilling rig over it on the vessel deck.

Everyone said it couldn't be done. William Jacob Management and Murphy Oil Corporation never got the memo.

Prosafe Production was responsible for the FPSO conversion, while Murphy West Africa Ltd (Murphy) was responsible for the drilling scope.

The vessel is equipped with a modular drilling package that can be removed and reused elsewhere when the production wells have been drilled. The Azurite has a storage capacity of 1.4 million barrels of oil and a process capacity of 60,000 bfpd/40,000 bopd and will be spread-moored at a water depth of 1,400 meters. The subsea manifold has ten slots - six for oil and gas production and four for water injection. The subsea manifold is tied to the FDPSO by three flexible high pressure risers, two for production and one for water injection. The trees are vertical and tied to the subsea manifold by flexible well jumpers. A multiphase pump will provide artificial lift.

The FDPSO maximum process capacity is 40,000 bopd and 18 mmscfd. Storage capacity is 1.3 mm barrels of oil.