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Dutch Yards and Supply Companies
The Stena Don underwent a major refit at Damen Verolme Rotterdam. (Photograph: Damen)
by Paul Schaap, PAS Publicaties
The Dutch yards and supply companies serving the oil and gas industry and offshore wind energy sector continue to surprise all comers with special projects, vessel types and innovative products and solutions. Their reputation is growing not only at home but in particular also on the export market. These companies – of which we give a few examples below – are global operators.
2019 was once again year of ceaseless activity at the various repair yards of the Damen Shipyards Group. Examples include the major refit of the large 5th generation semi-submersible drilling rig Stena Don at Damen Verolme Rotterdam. The rig occupied the mammoth dock in which the largest drilling rigs, crane vessels and pipelaying vessels can be dry docked, between October 2018 and February 2019. The jack-up vessel Innovation operated by DEME also underwent a major maintenance and repair program at the yard. Other eye-catching vessels that visited the yard included the pipelayer Apache II, the heavy-lift construction vessel Seven Borealis and the semi-submersible crane vessel Saipem 7000. At Damen Shiprepair in Schiedam, the well intervention vessel Well Enhancer and the jack-up vessel Sea Installer received the full treatment, while at Damen Shiprepair Oranjewerf and Damen Shiprepair Amsterdam, respectively, work was carried out on the diving support vessels Toisa Paladin and Deep Arctic. At Damen Shiprepair in Brest, the pipelay vessel Deep Energy and at the yard in Dunkerque the newest heavy-lift jack-up vessel Apollo, operated by DEME were also docked. On board the Apollo, a moonpool was installed in the main deck.
On 25 May 2019, the reel-lay vessel Seven Vega was finally launched at the Royal IHC yard in Krimpen aan den IJssel. This high-specification vessel, built on contract to
Subsea 7, is capable of installing complex, rigid flowlines, including pipe-in-pipe systems. The reel-lay system on the 149-metre long and 33-metre wide Seven Vega has a 600-tonne top tension capacity and is capable of pipe laying in water depths of up to 3,000 metres. The vessel’s other equipment includes a 250-tonne offshore crane from Huisman. Another remarkable project currently underway at Royal IHC involves the transformation of the construction vessel Amazon operated by McDermott, into an ultradeepwater J-lay vessel. This yard was selected to design and build the J-lay system that delivers a dynamic tension of 1,500 tonnes, and to carry out overall management of the modification work. Elsewhere, on behalf of Shanghai Salvage, Royal IHC designed and fabricated an integrated 550-tonne reel-lay system. It will be one of the largest and most sophisticated reel-lay systems in the world. The yard has also been contracted to support the installation and commissioning of a 2,000-tonne J-lay system on ZPMC’s multipurpose vessel JSD 6000 in Changxing, China. The J-lay system itself was completed in April 2019. In close cooperation with ROV operators, Royal IHC has developed a ground-breaking IRM vessel, the IHC OSV T3000-20, and in December 2019, IHC IQIP signed an agreement with a Chinese firm for the fabrication of an S-3600 Hydrohammer with a 7.5 m sleeve.
Damen Shipyards Hardinxveld delivered the renewables service vessel 3315 Isle of Jura to Seafast Maritime. This is the second Damen RSV 3315 vessel to be built built to a new design. The powerful multipurpose working vessel was designed to work in both shallow and deeper waters.
FPSOs
The world’s largest FPSO supplier SBM Offshore has so much confidence in an upturn in demand for floating production, storage and offloading vessels that a whole series of hulls of the Fast4Ward type have already been placed on the stocks, at Chinese shipyards. SBM Offshore has described the Fast4Ward type FPSO as a game changer that will deliver users a cost-effective solution. The first Fast4Ward FPSO is scheduled to start work for ExxonMobil off the coast of Guyana. This vessel, to be christened the Liza Unity, will have a production capacity of 220,000 barrels of oil per day, a water injection capacity of 250,000 barrels per day and a storage capacity of 2 million barrels of oil.
In June 2019, Petrobras signed a letter of intent with SBM Offshore for the 22.5 year lease and operation of the Sepetiba FPSO, to be deployed at the Mero field in the Santos Basin, off the coast of Brazil. A Fast4Ward type FPSO will also be deployed on this project. In November 2019, ExxonMobil contracted SBM Offshore to perform front-end engineering and design work for an FPSO for the Payara development project in the Stabroek block off the coast of Guyana. This FPSO will be christened Prosperity, and will also be of the Fast4Ward type. The first Fast4Ward hull was towed from the SWS yard in China to the Keppel yard in Singapore in January 2020, for further finishing work.
In March 2019, Hurricane Energy successfully hooked up the Aoka Mizu FPSO, owned by Bluewater Energy Systems, to the turret mooring system buoy at the Lancaster field, located in the western Shetlands area. The FPSO will see service as an early production system for the development of the Lancaster field. In November 2019, Shell and its partner Ithaca Energy announced their final
Royal IHC built the reel-lay vessel Seven Vega for Subsea 7. (Photograph: PAS Publicaties)
The first Fast4Ward FPSO, Liza Unity, from SBM Offshore. (Photograph: SBM)
investment decision on the Pierce depressurization project in the UK central North Sea. The FPSO Haewene Brim operated by Bluewater Energy Systems will be deployed on this project, following modification work.
Support vessels
In addition to the major Dutch offshore contractors, a whole series of Dutch support vessel owners can also be found operating worldwide. Among the best known is Vroon Offshore Services (VOS). As well as deploying supply vessels, anchor-handling tug supply vessels, emergency response and rescue vessels and diving support vessels on the North Sea, VOS also has a very obvious presence in the Mediterranean, in particular off the coast of Egypt. In this region, a large proportion of the VOS fleet – including three supply vessels and six anchor-handling tug supply vessels – are currently focusing on the development of the giant Zohr gas field. The same operator also recently signed a contract with BP for the provision of emergency response and rescue services in Trinidad and Tobago. The VOS Fabulous, VOS Gorgeous and VOS Grace have been dispatched for this contract. VOS is also active in West Africa and the Far East. The supply vessel VOS Pride, for example, has been offering support for some time to Hess Exploration and Production Malaysia, as part of a developmental drilling campaign, while a long-term contract has been signed with PTTEP Thailand, for the VOS Ares, for deployment as a production support vessel. Neptune Energy Netherlands awarded SeaMar Shipping a three-year contract, plus two one-year extension options, for the IRM vessel SeaMar Splendid, for IRM campaigns on the Dutch Continental Shelf. Since mid-2019, the diving support vessel Deep Helder operated by SeaMar Subsea has been carrying out a geophysical survey of the existing East West Interconnector in the Irish Sea. This interconnector links the electricity transmission grids of Ireland and Great Britain.
The VOS Ares is at work off the coast of Thailand, as a production support vessel. (Photograph: VOS) The Acta Orion, one of the three walk-to-work construction support vessels operated by Acta Marine, was also deployed in the offshore oil and gas sector, following two successful projects in the offshore wind energy sector. Walk-to-work services were for example provided in the Danish Hejre field for operator Ineos and in the Dutch sector of the North Sea for Petrogas, on the A12 production platform. The two Shoalbusters Coastal Rambler and Coastal Voyager completed a challenging offshore oil and gas project off the western coast of India.
Survey and design
As well as undertaking a considerable volume of work in the offshore wind energy sector, geophysical service provider Fugro is also a market leader among specialist service providers for the oil and gas industry. In 2019, for example, Fugro undertook three seep hunting and geochemical campaigns for Petronas in Malaysia, involving the Fugro Equator and Fugro Equinor. In the Gulf of Mexico, Fugro carried out a series of deepwater geophysical surveys on behalf of Shell, deploying a Hugin autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) from its purpose-built survey vessel Fugro Brasilis. The Fugro Equator also carried out a deepwater geophysical survey with an AUV on behalf of Brunei Shell Petroleum, while a series of new contracts were signed for survey work in the United States and the Far East, and in the North Sea, the Baltic and African waters.
Growing numbers of jack-up drilling rigs are reaching the market, built according to a design from GustoMSC. Shelf Drilling, for example, purchased two jack-up rigs of the type GustoMSC CJ-46, fabricated by the China Merchants yard, as well as taking out an option for the purchase of a further two rigs of this same type, for future use in bareboat charter. The two purchased rigs were christened Shelf Drilling Achiever and Shelf Drilling Journey.
Drilling contractor Noble Corporation for its part purchased two jack-up drilling rigs of the type GustoMSC CJ-46 from fabricator PaxOcean. These rigs were christened Noble Johnny Whitstine and Noble Joe Knight. Drilling contractor Northern Offshore is starting work with two GustoMSC CJ-50 jack-up drilling rigs, fabricated at the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipyard. They have been given the names Energy Enticer and Energy Edge. In October
