Jessica Morales interviews Carlos Mastrangelo, managing partner, B-in Partners LLC, who was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award for Individuals at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. Mastrangelo is lauded for his pioneering efforts in the worldwide design and adoption of cost-efficient floating production, storage, and offloading units (FPSOs).

He has been engaged in FPSO activities since the 1980s. In the 1990s Mastrangelo worked with the Brazilian Navy, Port Authorities, and Class Societies towards the standardization and development of regulations for fully classed FPSOs. He is also credited for establishing the basis for Petrobras’ leased unit contract that is still in effect today.

In the early 2000s, the US industry was relatively untouched by the FPSO market. Mastrangelo supported the US government agencies in their environmental impact study and risk analysis to evaluate the use of FPSOs in the US GoM. In 2006, Mastrangelo started leading Petrobras’ effort to define the strategy for the first FPSO and the first purpose-built Jones Act shuttle-tanker in the US. His pioneering work and contribution to the industry paved the road for the introduction of the FPSOs in the USA and for the worldwide use of the FPSOs as can be seen today.

Mastrangelo currently serves on the OTC Houston and OTC Brasil program committees and has authored and presented numerous papers on this topic. In 2005, the Brazilian Navy recognized his contribution to the offshore industry and the Society of Petroleum Engineers named him as the Engineer of the Year, in Brazil. In 2012, SPE named Carlos Mastrangelo as the recipient of the international award for this pioneering contribution that introduced FPSOs to the U.S.

Offshore