Petrobras Sandwich Hull Tank Design Receives ABS Approval

AIP ceremony at OTC Brazil 2025 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (L to R) Vinícius Mattos; Petrobras Surface Engineering Technologies Manager; Silvia Ramscheid Figueiredo; R&D for Structural and Surface Engineering at CENPES; Matthew Tremblay; ABS Vice President, Global Offshore Markets; João Paiva; ABS; Engineer, Managing Principal; Rafael Torres; ABS Director, Global Offshore - South America. © ABS

ABS issued an approval in principle (AIP) to Petrobras for its safety-enhancing “sandwich hull” design concept for floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) tanks.

The design uses parts of longitudinal and transverse elements constructed with steel-concrete-steel sandwich structures that allow tanks to remain free of internal obstructions, promising to improve operational efficiency during tank inspections and enabling activities to be performed using remotely operated tools and automated devices such as robots.

ABS completed design reviews based on class requirements.