Rejuvenated in drydock, dive support vessel chartered for India offshore

Mumbai-based dive support vessel (DSV) owner and operator Seamec Limited, a subsidiary of HAL Offshore Limited, has entered into a 15-day charter agreement with POSH Subsea Pte Limited for Seamec Princess. The saturation DSV will work in the Mumbai High field offshore India under a BIMCO charterparty agreement, which contains an option for extension, with a value of US$1M.

Operated by India’s state-run oil company Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Mumbai High field is 176 km off the west coast of India in about 75 m of water in the Arabian Sea. India’s largest offshore oil field, Mumbai High (formerly Bombay High) has been in production since 1976.

Flying the Indian flag, Seamec Princess was built at Rauma Repola Oy in Finland in 1984, and later modified in 2001 and 2008. Fitted with a Converteam duplex system, the vessel is dynamic positioning class 2 capable. With an overall length of 123.4 m, beam of 21 m and draught of 6.45 m, Seamec Princess can accommodate 117 and has a free deck area of 1,050 m², with the capacity to carry 1,500 tonnes of deck cargo. The vessel has a maximum speed of 10 knots and economic transit speed of 7 knots, with propulsion power supplied by two Wärtsilä 8R32 engines, each producing 3,240 kW, and two 2,430 kW Wärtsilä 6R32 engines.

For diving operations, Seamec Princess has a 12-man saturation diving system certified for 300 m of seawater (MSW), a bell handling system, Gasmizer diver gas recovery system and three-man diving bell with moonpool launching arrangement. A hyperbaric rescue chamber (HRC) can be launched and recovered on the starboard side of the vessel and it has storage capacity for 5,445 m³ of gas, 808 m³ of air and 396 m³ of treatment mix.

Charter follows drydocking

Charter of the Seamec Princess follows its recent statutory drydocking at Sri Lanka’s Colombo Dockyard, majority owned by Japan’s Onomichi Dockyard Co Ltd. Colombo Dockyard operates four drydocks with capability to accommodate vessels up to 125,000 dwt, a workforce of 3,000 and average annual turnover of US$150M.

Seamec Princess was serviced in Drydock No 1, where its transfer under pressure (TUP) compartment door was reconditioned. Shipyard-fabricated tools were used for in situ machining of the door. After mounting the portable boring machine, workers removed and repaired all of the damaged areas of the door, building up the SUS309L stainless steel material to a thickness of 7 mm. Final machining was performed on the flange face and O-ring groove and the machined surface was polished. The heart of non-saturation diving operations onboard the vessel, the compartment was pressurised to 35 bar to check the seating of the reconditioned door.

Both of Seamec Princess’s 2,400 kW Aquamaster US 3001 fixed-pitch azimuth thrusters and one of its three 1,275-kW Ulstein 375 TV controllable-pitch bow thrusters were removed and overhauled. This involved the removal and replacement of the drive shafts of both azimuth thrusters, which had undergone temporary repairs. The drive wheel was removed and overhauled.

Colombo Shipyard overhauled the clutch shaft of the vessel’s 100-tonne-capacity main pedestal crane.

While in drydock, the vessel’s bell clamp weight locking mechanism was completely renewed with shipyard-fabricated components made from mild steel and bronze.

Besides Seamec Princess, Seamec Limited operates the multi-purpose support vessel Seamec I and DSVs Seamec II and Seamec III.