Offshore experts STX OSV

OFFSHORE EXPERTS

A new yard in South America and new orders from Norwegian customers are keeping up the momentum of growth at STX OSV, the specialist in the design and building of vessels for the offshore oil and gas industry. Peter Mercer reports.

This April, STX OSV reached an important milestone in its expansion into the fastgrowing Brazilian off-shore market when its subsidiary, Estaleiro Promar SA, received an environmental licence for the construction of a new shipyard in Suape, in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. Project development of the yard, which will join STX OSV’s existing yard in north-eastern Brazil, is to begin immediately and construction is expected to start later this year. The first vessels from the new yard are expected to begin construction in 2012 and full operations at the yard are scheduled for 2013.

The first ships to be built at the new yard will be eight LPG carriers for Petrobras’ subsidiary Transpetro, the largest oil and gas transportation company in Brazil. When these ships are completed, the company says that the yard will be used for off-shore vessel construction, almost tripling STX OSV’s delivery capacity in Brazil and very significantly reinforcing its already strong position in this dynamic market.

Complex vessels

Headquartered in Ålesund, Norway, STX OSV is one of the world’s leading designers and builders of vessels for the offshore oil and gas exploration and production and oil services industries. As well as its five shipbuilding facilities in Norway and its yard in Brazil, it operates two shipyards in Romania and one in Vietnam and has a workforce of some 9000.

STX OSV is a subsidiary of STX Europe, one of the world’s leading builders of cruise vessels, ferries and OSVs, with six shipyards in Finland, France and Norway as well as the nine yards of STX OSV. STX Europe was established as a company in 2009, when the STX Group of South Korea completed the acquisition of Aker Yards, which had itself been created in 2004 through the combining of the shipbuilding operations of Aker and Kvaerner. The STX Group has approximately 54,000 employees worldwide and has global ambitions not only in the shipbuilding industry but also in shipping and trade, machineries, plant and construction and energy.

The core business of STX OSV is the innovative design and construction of complex and highly customised offshore and specialised vessels, platform supply vessels, anchor handling tug supply vessels and subsea support vessels. The company also produces other specialised vessels such as LNG-powered ferries, naval and coast guard vessels, fishing craft and icebreakers.

Ship of the Year

In the design development of its ships STX OSV combines its long shipbuilding tradition with the most modern and sophisticated techniques to create innovative solutions in close cooperation with experienced and highly demanding customers. A fine example of how the company can respond to such demands is the construction of the deepwater intervention vessel, Skandi Aker, which was awarded the coveted international ‘Ship of the Year’ prize in 2010.

The contract for this newbuilding was signed as far back as August 2006 between STX Norway Offshore Soviknes and the owners, DOFCON AS, but during the construction process DOFCON and the operator Aker Oilfield Services asked for major changes to the original vessel. The result was that the hull and basic outfitting was not delivered from the STX Norway Offshore yard in Tulcea until March 2009. Then, during the outfitting at Soviknes, further changes were implemented.

Together these changes make it possible for the ship to singlehandedly undertake several operations that have previously been exclusively assigned to oilrigs. So instead of using a large oilrig, accompanied by a support vessel, oil companies can instead deploy a Skandi Aker type vessel for many tasks.

The Skandi Aker is quite a large vessel at 156.9 metres overall length and 27 metres width with a module handling tower rising more than 60 metres above sea level. The ship can accommodate 140 people and is capable of operating at depths of up to 3,000 metres, much deeper than the average 800 metre limits of other existing well-intervention vessels.

2011 orders

This year has seen STX OSV continue to win new contracts for offshore and specialised vessels. In March the company announced an order for the design and construction of a multifunctional platform supply vessel from NorSea Group AS, a leading supplier of base services and integrated logistics solutions for Norway’s oil and gas industry. This vessel will be of STX OSV’s own PSV 08 design. It is approximately 4000 dwt with a deck area of 880m2 and is equipped with standby rescue, firefighting and oil-recovery functionality. The hull will be constructed at one of STX OSV’s yards in Romania and the ship is scheduled for delivery from STX OSV Brattvaag in Norway in June 2012.

Also in March, an order was announced for another platform supply vessel for an undisclosed customer. This vessel will be to STX OSV’s PSV 09 design and, again, the hull will be built in Romania and the completed vessel delivered from STX OSV Norway in 2012.

These orders have been followed in April by new contracts for the design and construction of a series of three multi-role vessels (MRV) for DOF ASA. These MRV 05 vessels were designed by STX OSV Design in Ålesund, Norway, and are based on the company’s new environmentally friendly PSV hull shape. They have been developed in close cooperation with DOF to fulfil specific roles in supply service, stand-by service, ROV operations and seismic activities. The hulls of all three ships will be delivered from STX OSV in Romania and outfitting and commissioning of two of them will be carried out by STX OSV Aukra, with the third being delivered from STX OSV Brattvaag. n