Pipelay Vessels News

Dutch company Huisman has secured a contract from Subsea 7 for the delivery of its 500MT offshore mast crane for one of pipelay vessels for deep water installations.The 500mt Offshore Mast Crane will be equipped with a passive and active heave compensation system on the main hoist to counter-act the vessel’s heave motion when landing a product onto the seabed.Huisman has upgraded its heave compensation system with a variety of new control modes to extend the operational window…

An ailing crewmember was airlifted from a pipelay vessel in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, the U.S. Coast Guard said.Coast Guard Eighth District and Coast Guard Sector New Orleans command center watchstanders received a report at approximately 10 p.m. Saturday from the Solitaire of a 32-year-old crewmember aboard experiencing severe abdominal pain.Sector New Orleans watchstanders coordinated the launch of a Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew to assist.

Ship design company Ulstein Design & Solutions has designed an offshore wind installation vessel that it says is "a safer, smarter, and more competitive ship design solution for transporting, upending and installing large monopiles on DP."The patent-pending U-STERN design, according to the company, enables longitudinal storage of monopiles and upending in the ship center line. "This allows the ship to head into the waves during the installation process, minimizing ship motions and fuel consumption, while the U-STERN provides excellent shielding from the waves.

Allseas is fitting its pipelay vessels Solitaire and Audacia, as well as the multi-purpose vessel Fortitude, with hybrid power technology from Kongsberg Maritime.The offshore installation firm says that vessel hybridization is key to its strategy to minimize the impact on the environment by optimizing efficiency and reducing emissions across its operations."Energy storage technology optimizes energy and load-sharing capability. Batteries store energy when demand is low and deliver it back when demand increases, shaving peaks in power demand. The result is optimal engine loading with improved fuel efficiency and reduced running hours."…

As many maritime markets were challenged by COVID-19, Royal IHC, a Dutch maritime conglomerate and bellwether for the industry, reported its annual numbers indicated the smoke is clearing and a recovery is in sight.2020 will surely go down as a year many inside and out of the maritime industry will want to soon forget, and in releasing its annual figures Royal IHC noted that the first half of 2020 was dominated by refinancing and recapitalization, with COVID-19 having a "major impact" on order intakes throughout 2020.

The Nord Stream 2 has requested a permit allowing it to use pipe-laying vessels with anchors to complete the final roughly 120-kilometer stretch of pipeline in Danish waters, Denmark's energy agency (DEA) said on Tuesday.Work on the project stopped in December as pipe-laying firm Swiss-Dutch Allseas suspended work due to U.S. sanctions targeting companies providing vessels laying Nord Stream 2 pipes.The DEA did not say how the work would proceed in the face of a new risk of sanctions but its decision would be "purely administrative" and in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.The Trump administration opposes the project on the grounds it would strengthen Russia's economic grip over Europe.This month, U.S.

The Nord Stream 2, export gas pipeline running from Russia to Europe across the Baltic Sea, is 75% complete, the project's operator, Nord Stream 2 AG, said in a statement.A total of 1,855 kilometers of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline were built along the bottom of the Baltic Sea in the waters of Russia, Finland, Sweden and Germany. That's about 75 percent of the total length of the pipeline, the release said.Both strings have already been completed in German territorial waters and Finnish waters. Pipelay is currently ongoing in Russian territorial waters. At the landfalls in Germany and Russia, construction works have reached an advanced stage.All pipes needed for the twin pipeline system have been concrete weight coated.

The last Nord Stream 2 pipe stored within the premises of the port of Karlshamn left the storage area. Russia’s  Nord Stream 2 AG is the operator of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.Nearly 39,000 pipes have transited through the port since October 7, 2017. Out of these, almost 37,000 pipes have been shipped to the pipelay vessels working on the Swedish section of the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. The surplus has been transported back to the port of Mukran in northern Germany.Wasco Coating Germany GmbH was in charge of the logistics operations in the port of Karlshamn during this 23-month long period.Up to 140 people worked for the Nord Stream 2 project during the peak period in the port of Karlshamn, when operations went on around the clock.

Maritime Developments (MDL), a provider of back-deck equipment for the subsea sector of oil and gas industry, has been awarded a contract to supply a complete pipelay spread and personnel for a flexible installation offshore Equatorial Guinea.The award comes from a new client, whose work scope covers the launch of a number of new wells in an existing network of drill centres in the West African basin, MDL said.The MDL spread will consist of the MDL Horizontal Lay System (HLS), delivered with a 4-track pipelay tensioner; an MDL Second-generation Reel Drive System and MDL’s integrated Track and Cradle System.The project is due to commence in Q3 this year and will be MDL’s fourth campaign in West Africa in 2019.

1000 km of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline has now been laid in the Baltic Sea in Finnish, Swedish and German waters.Two Allseas pipelay vessels - Pioneering Spirit and Solitaire - are currently installing the pipeline in Swedish waters.Some twenty vessels are currently being engaged in the project in the Baltic Sea, with nearly 1,300 people working on board the pipelay, pipe supply and survey vessels.Another milestone was also reached last week, when the project’s coating and logistics contractor Wasco completed concrete weight coating of its share of the steel pipes in its plant in Kotka, Finland, where approximately 101,000 steel pipes had been coated.This corresponds to half of the pipes needed for the twin pipelines.The twin pipeline system consists of two approximately 1…

Classification society Bureau Veritas has issued new rules for the Classification of Offshore Service Vessels and Tugs, including new class notations for pipelay vessels, accommodation units, offshore construction vessels and offshore support vessels. Gijsbert de Jong, Bureau Veritas Marine Marketing and Sales Director, said: “With this new publication Bureau Veritas provides the industry with a clear framework for the classification of offshore service vessels and tugs based on an end-user friendly system of class notations reflecting the terminology used by the industry.

A vastly modernized U.S. offshore support fleet awaits the opportunity to perform Jones Act work in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Foreign operators, already here, predict disaster if a cabotage rule change takes effect. A change proposed by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in its Customs Bulletin & Decision newsletter promises reversal of a 40-year practice that, until now, allowed the use of non-coastwise-qualified vessels in the transportation of pipeline repair material; anodes; pipeline connectors; wellhead equipment; valves and valve guards; damaged pipelines; platform repair material; and similar cargo from one domestic point to another. The proposed change gave all interested parties until April 18th to make comment, a deadline which has now come and gone.

Following an international tender process, Nord Stream 2 AG have awarded a contract for offshore pipelay of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea to Allseas. The company will undertake offshore pipelay works for both lines in 2018 and 2019. Allseas will use three pipelaying vessels – Pioneering Spirit, Solitaire and Audacia. The utilisation of the dynamically-positioned pipelay vessels, which are able to carry out precise maneuvering without anchors, should ensure additional environmental protection and safety in the congested Baltic Sea. Allseas’ Solitaire previously laid parts of the Nord Stream pipeline in the Gulf of Finland.

Royal IHC has named and launched the 550t top tension capacity pipelay vessel, Seven Cruzeiro, at its shipyard in Krimpen aan den IJssel. This is the final pipelaying vessel in a series of three ordered by Subsea 7, and the naming ceremony was performed by Sally Rosa, wife of Ricardo Rosa, Chief Financial Officer, Subsea 7. In addition, the Seven Sun, launched on December 19, 2014 in Kinderdijk and the second vessel of this series, was officially named  by Lilian Camozzato, wife of Guilherme Camozzato, Director of Operations, Subsea 7 Brazil.

Netherlands-based Royal IHC today named and launched new pipelaying sister vessels, Sapura Jade and Sapura Ônix, in ceremonies at the company’s shipyard in Krimpen aan den IJssel, The Netherlands. Sapura Jade’s naming was performed by Belle de Bruin, managing director of the Indofin Group, following the naming of Sapura Ônix by Dahlia Abdul Aziz, spouse of Alex Monsen, JV board member and VP of newbuild/senior vice president of Seadrill. The Sapura Jade was ordered by Sapura Navegação Marítima, a joint venture between SapuraKencana and Seadrill.

Offshore wind construction in the U.S. Thrustmaster of Texas, a marine propulsion design and manufacturing company in the U.S., is looking to give an edge to U.S. based marine jack-up operators wanting to enter the U.S. offshore wind farm construction and maintenance sector by cutting the cost of entry in half with a unique propulsion system that allows conversion of existing vessels to dynamically positioned work vessels. The United States’ offshore wind market is exploding with opportunity, and current marine construction contracts are being awarded to operators outside the U.S.

Technip was awarded by EnQuest earlier this year a large(1) engineering, procurement, installation and construction (EPCI) contract for the Kraken development located in the North Sea,  400 kilometers North-East of Aberdeen and 130 kilometers East of Shetland, at a water depth of approximately 120 meters. - pipeline flooding, hydro testing and leak testing. Technip’s operating center in Aberdeen, United-Kingdom, will execute the contract. The Group will leverage its unique vertical position in the subsea business. The Group’s spoolbase in Evanton, United-Kingdom, will weld and load-out the rigid pipe and Technip Umbilicals, Technip’s wholly-owned subsidiary in Newcastle, United-Kingdom, will manufacture the umbilical.

In its latest subsea vessels report Douglas-Westwood (DW) forecast more than $100b of expenditure on subsea vessel operations over the next five years – with global demand is expected to increase by 23%. The increase in expenditure is expected to be higher than the growth in vessel days, due to the move towards higher specification vessels to cater for deeper and more complicated field development programs. Dayrates for high specification dive support vessels (DSV) and multipurpose support vessels (MSV) are expected to increase by over 40% by 2017.

UTEC Survey contracted by a major subsea pipelay contractor for survey work on the Great Western Flank Pipe Lay. This project encompasses pre-lay, installation support and as-built survey support on the Greater Western Flank development off the North-west coast of Australia. Pre-lay work is due to commence in late March 2013 with the major pipelay activities to follow in Q3. UTEC’s equipment and personnel will operate from a number of vessels including one of the contractor’s state-of-the-art DP pipelay vessels capable of laying 16” CRA pipe. Commenting on the project, UTEC Regional Sales & Marketing Manager, Noel Cowley states: “This is a significant achievement for UTEC Australia.

Ocean Installer & leading offshore engineering & construction company McDermott establish alliance to meet rigid pipelay needs in the North Sea subsea market. The alliance marks McDermott’s re-entry into the North Sea and establishes Ocean Installer as a tier one North Sea contractor by adding rigid pipelay to the company’s capabilities. McDermott continues to expand its subsea resources including a growing fleet of rigid-pipelay vessels such as the highly advanced Lay Vessel North Ocean 105, its sister ship Lay Vessel 108 (expected to be available mid-2014), and recently announced new-build deepwater combination S-Lay vessel with a 2000-ton crane DLV 2000, (expected to be available in 2015).

The Group achieved $9.7 million net profit on turnover of $733.0 million in Q1 2013, but shipyard & drybulk operations contributions down. In Q1 2013, turnover from shipyard operations decreased by 25.5% to $719.2 million from $965.9 million in Q1 2012, owing to lower revenue contribution from the ship repair and ship building segment. The Group delivered 7 bulk carriers in Q1 2013. Of these, COSCO Zhousan and COSCO Guangdong shipyard delivered 2 bulk carriers each while COSCO Dalian shipyard delivered 3 bulk carriers. Turnover from dry bulk shipping and other businesses increased 7.8% from $12.8 million in Q1 2012 to $13.8 million in Q1 2013.

The subsea vessel operations market is poised to see an increase in demand in the near term with day rates for some vessels set to increase. Between 2013 and 2017, Douglas-Westwood (DW) forecast $106 billion of expenditure on subsea vessel operations – an increase of 54% over the preceding five-year period. Global demand is expected to increase 23% compared to the previous five years. The rate of increase in expenditure is expected to be higher than the growth in vessel days,…

Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd's (Keppel O&M) subsidiaries have won three new contracts - worth a combined value of $343mn - to bring the group's total order wins for 2012 to $8.1B. Mr Tong Chong Heong, CEO of Keppel O&M, said, "With the strong confidence and support of new and repeat customers, Keppel O&M continues to be the provider of choice for a broad range of offshore and marine projects. "2013 will be a busy year for us as we continue to focus on the quality execution of all our projects - we are committed to ensure that they are delivered safely, promptly and to high customer satisfaction. Keppel Singmarine Pte Ltd (Keppel Singmarine) secured two of the three new contracts, with the third new contract won by Keppel Shipyard Ltd (Keppel Shipyard).