ABS team at steel cutting for BP's Thunder Horse semi-submersible at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering of South Korea. From left, Joel Rosenstein, Principal Engineer, Pusan; Zibi Puwalski, Principal Surveyor, Koje Island, Mark Riggio, Attending Surveyor and Site Project Manager, Koje Island; and Jae-Hoon Lee, Surveyor, Koje.

ABS is the classification society of record for

Part of the overall ABS success story in the Asia/Pacific region has been tapping into the offshore markets in the Gulf of Thailand, with its abundant reserves of natural gas . ABS has classed more than 100 Unocal Thailand platforms in the Gulf of Thailand since the late 1970s, including, most recently, eight fixed wellheads in the Pailin and Platong Fields. In addition, ABS has classed Unocal Thailand's FSO, Erawan and the three Bluewater-designed calm buoys operating nearby.

Chevron-Texaco has expanded into the region, acquiring a number of ABS-classed platforms from Pogo Producing Company, as well as the FPSO Tantawan Explorer, leased from and operated by Single Buoy Moorings, Inc. (SBM), and the FSO Benchamas Explorer, leased from and operated by Tanker Pacific.

ABS is also classing a newbuild FSO destined for the PT TEP/Total-operated Bongkot field. The FSO is currently under construction at Yantail Raffles Yard in the People's Republic of China and is expected to go into production in Q1 of 2003.

JVPC, a joint venture between Nippon Mitsubishi Oil and PetroVietnam, chose ABS to class their wellhead, living quarters, and water-injection platforms for the Rang Dong field

"These offshore projects showcase the workload and accomplishments of ABS in the Gulf of Thailand," says Ah Kuan Seah, Vice President of Business Technology and Development, ABS Pacific. "The prospects are that floating production units, be they FPSOs, TLPs, spars or semisubmersibles, whether newbuilt or converted, will be a growth sector for ABS not only in the Gulf, but in the overall Pacific region in years to come."