BS Project Manager Luiz Feijo reports Chevron’s Blind Faith deep water semisubmersible will be built to ABS classification standards.

Located in 7,000 feet of water, about 175 miles southeast of New Orleans, on Mississippi Canyon blocks 695 and 696 in the Gulf of Mexico, Blind Faith will be constructed by Norwegian marine contractor Aker Kvaerner with its deep-draft semisubmersible production platform configuration.

A first for ABS in its approach to the project’s management is that ABS Senior Engineer Marco Wigny, Offshore Engineering Department, Floating Structures, has been assigned to work in the designer’s office for the initial design phase of the project in order to make classification design approval a smooth process. “By placing Marco in Aker Kvaerner’s design office in Oslo, we provide them with a class representative on the spot to answer questions and work closely with the designers,” says Feijo. We are doing this as part of our customer service commitment.

First production from Blind Faith is expected in early 2008 at around 40,000 barrels of oil per day.