Valentine Maritime’s new derrick equipped pipe laying barge has accommodation for 300 people and a 1,600-ton crane mounted on a 120 by 31.7 meter (393.6X104-foot) barge. VM’s DLB1600 was built over a three-year period at the Nanjing Tianshun Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., in China. Registered in Panama, the barge has now been delivered to the Abu Dubai-based owners for work in the Arabian Gulf. The fully revolving 1,600 MT crane is electrically operated with a 70-meter main hook boom and a total of 76.9 meters to the tip of the auxiliary hook boom. The barge is equipped with pipe lay gear capable of laying 4-inch to 60-inch outside diameter pipe to depths of 300 meters.