Topflight Performance by Dutch Shipyards and Suppliers

As in the previous year, Dutch shipyards and ship repair yards and their suppliers completed a series of spectacular projects in 2016. Their achievements once again reflect the ability of Dutch companies to retain a leading position in the world when it comes to designing and fabricating very special ships and innovative equipment for use on board.

Over the past few years, Royal IHC has attracted most attention in the new shipbuilding sector, not only by designing and fabricating innovative dredging vessels, but also state-of-the-art pipelaying vessels. Since 2014, on behalf of Subsea 7, the Seven Waves, Seven Rio, Seven Sun and Seven Cruzeiro were successively fabricated and handed over, together with the Sapura Diamante, Sapura Topázio, Sapura Ônix, Sapura Jade and Sapura Rubi, for Sapura Navegação Maritima. Based on the same design, the Sapura Esmeralda was also completed, in Brazil. This impressive series of pipelaying vessels was subsequently deployed laying pipes in deep water for Petrobras, off the coast of Brazil. For Royal IHC, this was the largest shipbuilding order ever received. All of the ships for

Subsea 7 were equipped with a Huisman pipelay tower, while the Sapura vessels were equipped with a tower from IHC Engineering Business. In July 2016, Royal IHC received an honour award from Sapura Navegação Maritima, for the successful delivery of the pipelaying vessels. The yard subsequently received new orders from Shanghai Salvage for the supply of an integrated 550-tonne reel-lay system, and from Maersk Oil for the engineering, procurement and construction of a tandem mooring system and offloading system for a floating storage and offloading vessel due to be deployed in the Culzean field in the British sector of the North Sea. Finally, Royal IHC recently presented an innovative ship type for inter-array cable laying in windfarms, and a new type of heavy-lift jack-up vessel.

Deliveries The Damen Shipyards Group reported in 2016 that it had succeeded in delivering no less than 250 new vessels. This includes a large number of different types of tugboats, fastcrew suppliers and offshore support vessels. One delivery that attracted much attention this year was the handover of the next generation cablelaying vessel Maersk Connector, to Maersk Supply Service. This vessel, of the type Damen DOC 8500, in fact won the Offshore Support Ship 2017 award, presented in London at the start of 2017 by the Offshore Support Journal. This award was presented for setting an industry benchmark through its innovative design and efficiency in operation. The Maersk Connector has been chartered by DeepOcean. One special project due to be completed in 2017 involves the construction of four platform supply vessels of the type Damen PSV 5000. These four ships will be fabricated for Atlantic Towing based in Canada. One of these suppliers will be equipped as an IRM vessel. Damen elsewhere launched ideas for converting decommissioned platform supply vessels for example into container feeders, ships for naval operations, fish carriers or accommodation/ maintenance vessels. Another design concept from the Damen drawing board was the Damen Decommissioning Series, a variety of vessel types for topside decommissioning, offshore platform removal and subsea cleaning and removal. At present, the Damen Shipyard Group operates 40 shipbuilding and ship repair yards worldwide. Scheepswerf De Hoop, with yards in Lobith and Foxhol, also attracted attention with the rapid completion of an incredible 10 platform supply vessels, for Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, according to the company’s own Design of the Future.

Repair work Although the ship repair sector is facing difficulties, Dutch repair yards continue to perform well, despite the occasional requirement to cut back on workforce numbers. In 2016, Keppel Verolme carried out work on the jackup rigs HZ 1 and Hercules Triumph, the accommodation platform Crossway Eagle, container vessels and product/ chemical tankers, as well as the windfarm installation vessel Innovation and the semi-submersible crane vessels Hermod and Saipem 7000. In addition, the diving support vessel Seawell and the lifting vessels Rambiz and Svanen were also docked at the yard, while work was carried out on board the brand-new FPSO Armada Kraken. This FPSO was subsequently installed in block 9/2b in the British sector of the North Sea, in February 2017, on behalf of EnQuest.

At Damen Shiprepair Amsterdam, large-scale maintenance was carried out in 2016 on the flexible fallpipe vessel Flintstone operated by Tideway, major modification work was carried out on board the windfarm installation vessel Sea Installer operated by A2SEA, and at Damen Shiprepair Rotterdam, the FPSO Petrojarl 1 sailed away from the dock, following an intensive period of modification, in June 2016. Maintenance work was carried out at the same yard on board the cable layer Isaac Newton operated by Jan de Nul, and modification work was carried out on the spudcans of the windfarm installation vessel Innovation, owned by DEME. Damen Shiprepair Flushing undertook a major refit and upgrading on the light well intervention and diving support vessel Seawell, for Helix Well Ops UK. At the start of 2017, no less than four windfarm installation vessels, all operated by Seajacks International, arrived simultaneously at the Damen Shiprepair yard in Amsterdam, for maintenance. At the yard of the Rotterdam Offshore Group, a series of vessels were mobilised for carrying out work offshore. Modifications were undertaken on the cable layer Ndeavor owned by Boskalis, and on the world’s largest windfarm installation vessel, the Seajacks Scylla, a remarkable vessel built according to a design by GustoMSC, and operated by Seajacks International.

Suppliers The Dutch suppliers were also hard at work in 2016. Above all the equipment designers and builders, including Huisman, were kept busy throughout the year. At the Huisman yard at Schiedam, in April a 650-tonne pipelaying tower was fitted on board the Skandi Búzios. A similar installation had previously been placed on board her sister vessel,

the Skandi Açu. In May, at this yard an 850-tonne special purpose crane was delivered for the pipelaying vessel Solitaire operated by Allseas, and in June, the offshore support vessel Siem Helix 1 was equipped with a compact well intervention tower. The Seven Cruzeiro was also fitted on board with a pipelay tower in August, and in December, a 2,200-tonne crane was installed on board the Lewek Champion, at the Huisman yard in China. At the end of last year, the Huisman order book also listed cranes for the Happy Star operated by BigLift Shipping, for Van Oord’s windfarm installation vessel Aeolus, for two semi-submersible vessels operated by OOS International, and for an offshore installation vessel owned by Boskalis. There were also orders for a tub-mounted crane for the Pioneering Spirit owned by Allseas, and two tub-mounted cranes for the new semisubmersible crane vessel Sleipnir, currently being fabricated for Heerema Marine Contractors in the Far East.

At the Dutch offshore access solution provider Ampelmann, a new milestone was reached in 2016 with the delivery of the 50th Walk-to-Work (W2W) system. Worldwide, spread over around 200 projects, more than 3 million people have been granted safe access to their workplace, via Ampelmann W2W systems. A new development at Ampelmann is the Icemann, an innovative winterized version of the motion compensated gangway system. Ampelmann intends to deploy this system, which is capable of withstanding temperatures as low as minus 28 degrees Celsius, for operator Sakhalin Energy in the Sakhalin 2 field. Together with Damen, Ampelmann has also developed a safe and cost efficient helicopter transfer alternative, in the form of a Damen Fast Crew Supplier 5009 equipped with an L-type Ampelmann W2W system. At the start of 2017, Ampelmann signed a contract with SBM Offshore Contractors for the delivery of an E-type W2W system for an FPSO maintenance campaign in the Esperito Santo Basin off the coast of Brazil.

Crane builders Besides Huisman, there are a number of other well-known crane builders in the Netherlands, including Kenz Cranes and SMST. On behalf of Heerema Marine Contractors, Kenz is due to build two knuckleboom cranes for the deepwater construction vessel Aegir. SMST has also been awarded a contract for the delivery of two additional 100- tonne knuckleboom cranes for the subsea support vessels currently being built in China for Maersk Supply Service. In August 2016, the first M-series telescopic access bridge was successfully deployed offshore. The gangway was

installed on board the multipurpose vessel Abis Duisburg, for support during grouting operations. Elsewhere, SMST launched an access and cargo tower system, consisting of a tower with elevator and access bridge trolley system. At the start of 2017, SMST was awarded the order for the delivery of a motion-compensated gangway and 3D motion-compensated crane for the new offshore construction vessel which is being built at the Ulstein yard in Norway for the Dutch shipping company Acta Marine. In other news, IHC IQIP officially launched its new S-4000 Hydrohammer pile driving system, while Breman Offshore, in collaboration with Breman Machinery, developed and built a special monopile gripper system. Finally, Bargemaster recently reported that together with Bosch Rexroth, it had developed a new next generation gangway system. The first version of this system has now already been sold. In collaboration with TDW, Bargemaster has also developed a motion compensated pile gripper n

The pipelayer Sapura Rubi was delivered by Royal IHC, in 2016. (Photograph: PAS Publicaties)

The Maersk Connector is the next generation cablelayer.(Photograph: PAS Publicaties)

The FPSO Petrojarl 1 leaving the Damen Shiprepair dock in Rotterdam.(Photograph: PAS Publicaties)

At Huisman, the Siem Helix 1 was equipped with a compact wellintervention tower. (Photograph: PAS Publicaties)