Wärtsilä Inks 25 Maintenance Deal with Maersk Drilling
Wärtsilä said it has entered a cooperation with drilling contractor Maersk Drilling to create a 25-year thruster maintenance strategy for Maersk’s three semisubmersible rigs and four drillships. The parties have already completed the strategy work on the D-rigs and commenced the strategy work related to V-Drillships.
By reducing the thruster exchange time, the deep-sea rigs and drillships will spend less time in sheltered waters for thruster maintenance, Wärtsilä said. The joint strategy defines the planning procedures for scheduled maintenance as well as thruster services and equipment exchange in emergency scenarios.
With open exchange of information and knowledge, Wärtsilä and Maersk can also adopt a holistic view of the maintenance needs for a fleet of vessels over an extended time period, and thus optimize logistics and cost efficiency, Wärtsilä added.
“Wärtsilä and Maersk Drilling are taking cooperation to a new level, working as one team to ensure that operations on Maersk’s drilling rigs can proceed without unnecessary interruptions,” said Tamara de Gruyter, Vice President, Propulsion System Services, Wärtsilä.
“Our fleet operates in remote locations and very demanding weather conditions, which poses a challenge to maintenance. Together with Wärtsilä, we have created a comprehensive strategy that takes into account a variety of realistic scenarios and provides detailed responses. It is clear to us that this kind of intensive collaboration produces tangible results and benefits for both companies and our customers,” said Frederik Smidth, CTO, Maersk Drilling.
Wärtsilä’s scope of supply includes spare thrusters, and long-term storage maintenance. Maersk Drilling semisubmersible rigs Maersk Developer, Maersk Discoverer and Maersk Deliverer are equipped with eight LMT-FS3501 thrusters each. Four new spare thrusters will be delivered during 2018 and added to the four existing spare units. By having a full set of eight spare thrusters it is possible to reduce the shutdown period significantly by hot swopping all eight thrusters with the spare units. This provides additional flexibility to planning shutdowns in collaboration with clients to ensure minimal impact on operations.