Chinese shipbuilder Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (SWS) has launched a floating production, storage and offloading hull expected to serve ExxonMobil's Longtail project offshore Guyana. The vessel, designated multiple purpose floater 6 (MPF 6), was floated out of dry dock on Tuesday, marking the sixth hull built under SBM Offshore's Fast4Ward standardized floater program. The Fast4Ward model allows SBM Offshore to order generic hulls in advance of project awards, later fitting them with project-specific topsides to shorten construction timelines. MPF 6 uses SBM's proprietary hull design with a multi-point mooring system suited to various offshore environments, and is based on an FPSO capable of storing up to 2.3 million barrels of crude oil. It also includes an expanded accommodation block for up to 240 personnel, up from 180 on earlier models. SBM Offshore was awarded front-end engineering and design contracts by ExxonMobil Guyana for the Longtail FPSO in March this year, a deal that triggered allocation of the Fast4Ward hull. Longtail would be ExxonMobil's eighth development in the Stabroek block and its first focused primarily on gas and condensate rather than crude. The proposed facility would process about 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas per day, produce roughly 250,000 barrels per day of condensate, and store around 2 million barrels of condensate, moored at a water depth of approximately 1,750 meters. SWS has now delivered five MPF hulls, with the latest, MPF5, undergoing topside integration by Seatrium in Singapore for ExxonMobil's Whiptail project, targeting first oil in 2027.