Isle of Man Ship Registry Flags Subsea 7’s Reel-Lay Ship Seven Vega

The Isle of Man Ship Registry registered Subsea 7's newest vessel, Seven Vega.

It is the eleventh Offshore Support Vessel built for Subsea 7 to be flagged with the Registry. Seven Vega has been designed to install economical flowline technologies that address the growing market trend towards longer tie-back developments, and sets a new standard for offshore pipelay.

While most Subsea 7 vessels store piping and cabling in large carousel holds under deck, Seven Vega stows the product on external vertically mounted reels recessed into the deck with an open-top configuration. The design of the reel-lay system was focused on crew safety, total product capacity, operational efficiency and flexibility. The twin tensioner pipelay tower tilts to allow pipeline installation from shallow waters to depths of up to 3,000m. The large multi-level workstation optimiizes the efficiency of operations in and around the firing line, while the creative positioning of the main and auxiliary reels – recessed into the main deck – offers payload flexibility.

Once drawings were in place, the registry analyzed the proposal against statutory regulations to ensure the design of Seven Vega was safe and met relevant regulatory requirements. The ship's unconventional design also required a close cooperation between Class and Flag to identify and achieve an equivalent standard of quality and safety compared to a traditional vessel.