Innovative, cost-saving offshore vessel designs and technology

Despite the depressed state of the industry, it is good to see designs for new vessels and equipment coming to market. Ever-innovative, Ulstein in Norway has unveiled two new vessels in a short space of time: a heavy well intervention vessel developed in collaboration with Herrenknecht (a company that specialises in deep drilling technology); and a multipurpose construction vessel intended for use primarily in shallow water. Damen Shipyards Group has also unveiled a new design derived from its well-known Multi Cat; and on the equipment side of things, Safeway has obtained the first contract for its innovative walk-to-work motion compensated offshore access system, and NOV has developed a revolutionary new crane.

Ulstein’s heavy well intervention vessel for deepwater, the Ulstein DX105, has a ‘HVG Terra Invader 750’ drill tower and is designed for intervention in water depths of up to 2,500m. The vessel is intended as a cost effective unit and has a large, free work deck with direct access to a moonpool, allowing the vessel to carry a range of additional well equipment, such as coiled tubing equipment and wireline equipment. It also enables the vessel to store multiple Xmas trees and other subsea equipment along with cementing equipment and store extra drill pipes, risers and casings. The large deck also enables the vessel to store well testing equipment. The HVG drill tower consists of an A-frame structure, allowing for easy access to the drill floor. By using an automated horizontal racking system, a light substructure could be realised, which in combination with the weight saving A-frame solution resulted in a lower centre of gravity. This improves the operational envelope of the vessel, which Ulstein believes offers a higher payloads and mobilisation speed than a semi-submersible.

Also new from Ulstein is the S182, a newly-developed, dynamically positioned (DP) multipurpose construction vessel. For this design the main driver was to develop a very capex-friendly DP vessel with good capabilities to support various offshore operations, including cable lay and offshore construction. The vessel combines a large deck area with accommodation and station keeping capability. It is suitable for a wide range of operations, including cable laying, offshore construction, shallow water installation, dive support, rock installation, and salvage work. Combined with a mooring and DP2 (optionally DP3) stationkeeping system, the vessel’s endurance and transit speed ensure that the S182 can operate autonomously in remote shallow water and offshore areas.

A close working relationship between Delta Marine and Damen Shipyards Group has led to the development of another new design, which Damen has dubbed the ‘Damen Renewables Service Vessel 3315’ or RSV 3315. The UK-based wind service provider recently awarded Damen a contract for the construction of the first RSV 3315. It is due to be launched in early 2017. The new design has evolved from the Multi Cat concept, many examples of which have been built. The RSV 3315 will be able to take on a lot of the work larger offshore construction vessels currently perform. It has full DP2 capability and, with a wide deck, can carry a cable lay carousel, work-class remotely operated vehicles or cable trenching machines.

The first customer for Safeway’s offshore access system is Vestland Offshore, which has signed a contract with Safeway, part of the van Aalst Group in The Netherlands, for delivery of a Seagull class motion compensated gangway system for a vessel which is being converted to work in the offshore wind sector. Once again, the offshore wind industry and the ‘walk-to-work’ segment have thrown up an opportunity for an owner in an otherwise depressed market.

The first system will be installed on Vestland Cygnus, a Wärtsilä VS485 Mk III vessel, which is being converted for walk-to-work duties at Fjellstrand shipyard. An accommodation unit will also be installed on the vessel, along with a knuckleboom subsea crane.

At the time of writing, Brent crude was still trading at around US$48 per barrel and has not moved far from this level in either direction in the last couple of months. The oil price seems for the time being to have settled into a range around that level and probably won’t change unless the fundamentals change. The market is significantly oversupplied with oil and the offshore vessel market is oversupplied with ships; the only thing preventing prices from sliding even further is the longer-term outlook. As Fatih Birol, the new director of the International Energy Agency warned recently, there is a risk of tighter times again following the period of oversupply in the market, which looks set to continue until mid-next year at least. This is because investment in the oil and gas industry is being cut so heavily. There is, he says, a danger that investment will be reduced for two consecutive years for the first time in 20 years. That hasn’t stopped forward-looking companies from working on new, more cost-effective, efficient ships and equipment – quite the opposite. They know that when the market comes back, new technology will be required.