The Azurite field development, installed in the Republic of Congo in 2009, employed the industry's first Floating, Drilling, Production, Storage and Offloading (FDPSO) vessel to develop the field. While the FDPSO concept has been a subject of interest within the industry for some time, the Azurite project team took the FDPSO from concept to reality. The concept has tremendous potential as a "game changer" for field developments, whether it is employed to unlock the value of marginal fields in deepwater — even in a low oil price environment — or as an early production system. Because the concept employs a drilling rig onboard the vessel, traditional challenges regarding deepwater drilling rig day rates and availability are eliminated. This paper summarizes development of the Azurite field as a way of providing context for evolution of the FDPSO concept. This paper also highlights other application for FDPSOs, and discusses some of the key variables that determine the suitability of the FDPSO concept for use in field developments.