MODEC Ships FPSO Gato do Mato Forward Hull Section to China for Integration
MODEC reported that the forward section of FPSO Gato do Mato’s hull has been completed at Sumitomo Heavy Industries’ Yokosuka shipyard and dispatched from Japan to China. The section will be joined with the aft hull section under construction there. The 120,000-barrel-per-day FPSO is the first project to use MODEC’s Next Generation Hull design and is intended for the Shell-operated Orca Field offshore Brazil.
Confirmed development: MODEC announced on July 2, 2026 that the forward hull section for FPSO Gato do Mato had been completed at Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd.’s Yokosuka shipyard and had departed Japan for China. It is due to be integrated with the aft hull section already under construction in China. The milestone advances the FPSO from parallel hull fabrication toward assembly of the complete hull.
The unit will be the first application of MODEC’s Next Generation Hull design. MODEC states that it will have oil-production capacity of approximately 120,000 barrels per day and will use a SOFEC spread-mooring system in about 2,000 meters of water, approximately 200 kilometers south of Rio de Janeiro. The FPSO is intended for the Orca Field, where Shell is operator, Ecopetrol is a partner and PPSA participates as production-sharing contract manager.
Analyst interpretation: The movement of the forward section is evidence that MODEC’s multi-yard fabrication strategy has progressed into the integration phase. This approach may broaden available fabrication capacity and allow major hull blocks to be built concurrently, although the release does not provide the integration yard’s name, delivery schedule, contract value or expected start-up date. The identified relationships are extracted from MODEC’s release and remain subject to analyst review rather than database verification.
Date note: The article body identifies the release as July 2, 2026, while the supplied source metadata lists July 1, 2026. July 2 is used because it is explicitly stated in the source text.