Bahrain yard aims to capitalize on drilling, production needs in northern Gulf
Jeremy Beckman
Editor, Europe
Bahrain’s leading shipyard is investing heavily in offshore construction. Last year the Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard Co. (ASRY) decided to create a specialist division, ASRY Offshore Services (AOS), to capitalize on the forecast increase in offshore project activity throughout the Middle East.
Despite the subsequent slowdown in the E&P sector worldwide, the new operation has attracted a series of drilling rigs and construction vessels for repairs and overhauls. Over the longer term, the aim is to develop the facility into the foremost offshore repair, fabrication, conversion, and maintenance specialist in the northern Arabian Gulf region, capable of servicing most types of drilling and workover rigs, platforms, and offshore vessels.
ASRY is owned by the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Export Countries -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Iraq, Libya, and Qatar. ASRY was formed in 1977 as the first major shipyard in the northern Gulf, initially to look after the interests of owners of large crude oil tankers. Over the years the company has undertaken repair and upgrade programs on jackup rigs working in the region, as well as on DSVs, supply boats, FSUs, FSOs, and derrick barges and crane vessels, including Seaway Heavy Lifting’sStanislav Yudin, NPCC’s DLB 1000, and Mc Dermott’s DLB KP1.
The yard’s repair facilities, all available to clients of AOS, include:
- A 500,000-dwt, 375 x 75 m (1,230 x 246 ft) graving dock, capable of handling all types of rigs and construction vessels
- Two floating docks, one accommodating ships up to 120,000 dwt
- Eleven repair berths
- Two newly built slipways at a cost of $20 million, among the largest of their type in the Arabian Gulf region.
Both slipways provide a dry berth length of 240 m (787 ft), servicing vessels up to a maximum of 140 x 20 m (459 x 65 ft) and 5,000 dwt. Since June 2008, over 23 offshore vessels ranging from crane barges to tugs and OSVs have been repaired on the slipways. The slipways’ vertical curve formation is designed to facilitate newbuilding activities at the upper ends.
The offshore heavy-lift bargeClyde in ASRY's large graving dock.
As for lifting equipment, the graving dock has two cranes with 100- and 15-metric ton (110- and 16-ton) capacity, and maximum outreach of 65 m (213 ft). There is also a 35.5 m (116 ft) long floating crane pontoon providing 200-metric ton (220-ton) lift capacity at a height of 50 m (164 ft) above water level.
ASRY’s assembly area includes a plate shop capable of producing 25 metric tons/day (27.5 tons/day) of fabricated steel, and which recently took delivery of two new CNC flame-cutting machines. The pipe shop handles a range of special types of steels and exotic alloys, with cutting and pipe bending machines for thick- and thin-wall steel pipes. The workshops also include electrical and instrumentation departments to repair and overhaul all types of generators, motors, and switchgear, as well as to rewind AC motors up to 500 hp. Additionally, this department can service and install air conditioning, automation and control, and navigation/communication systems. All these facilities are available to AOS.
A jackup undergoing modifications at the AOS yard.
Fabrication area
AOS currently has a dedicated 30,000-sq m (322,917-sq ft) site for fabrication, with a 200,000-sq m (2,152,782-sq ft) offshore fabrication area under construction and due to enter service in 2011. This is part of a $188-million expansion at the ASRY yard that includes construction of a new 1.2-km (0.75-mi), gravity wall-type repair quay with water depth alongside of 12 m (39 ft), and four new 25-m (82-ft), 45-ton (41-metric ton) bollard pull tugs.
AOS operates out of purpose-built offices opened in May 2008 alongside the two new slipways. Another office block is being assembled for technical staff from clients with offshore vessels undergoing work in the yard. AOS’ senior management is headed by CEO Chris Potter, also CEO of ASRY; Project Engineering Manager Palitha Jagathpriya; and International Marketing Director Peter Thornton, who is based in the ASRYMAR office in London. Thornton has a 30-year background in the industry primarily as an offshore and subsea engineer, working off the west coast USA, Canada, Far East, and the North Sea.
Thornton was the driving force behind the creation of AOS.
“ASRY was already familiar with the local sector,” he says, “having done sub-contract work with NPCC, conversions for Saudi-owned rigs, and so on. But the market has changed, with Qatar now the world leader in offshore gas extraction. Maersk wants to put in 35 new platforms on Al Shaheen, making this the biggest offshore project anywhere.
Back-up services
Also, the Arabian Gulf has emerged as one of the major drilling areas, including the Bahraini offshore sector, with a growing need for rig back-up services.
“We wanted to set up a company that could look after the needs of rigs in the area, including liftboats, workover, and accommodation units; and which could also cater for development programs both through servicing heavy-lift and pipelay barges, and fabricating offshore structures and components such as single point moorings and subsea manifolds. We also recognized the lack of capacity for fabrication in the northern Gulf region, hence our investment in a 200,000-sq m offshore construction area.”
As seems typical in this part of the world, all the new facilities are coming together on a man-made island off Bahrain’s northern tip.
“We are now reclaiming land to the north of our facility which will be the location for the new enhanced fabrication site,” Thornton says. “This will include a new 1.2-km (3/4-mi) long quay. Here we plan to build structures for offshore platforms – small modules, caisson bundles, conductor guide frames, module support frames, and eventually decks and jackets.”
AOS will be able to draw on ASRY’s pool of 5,000 experienced construction staff. “But we are also looking at providing specialist manpower services, supplying qualified teams of technicians to go offshore if necessary. For example, if a client wants a helideck or new flare boom, we are capable of fabricating it in our yard and then taking it directly offshore for installation.”
There’s more. “We also plan to develop this complex as a hub of excellence for the oil and gas industry – currently there is no real hub in the Gulf for oil service companies,” Thornton says. “As Bahrain is a duty-free port, we can offer an economic location for drilling and support vessel contractors to set up operational bases. With 25 specialist companies already working in the yard alongside AOS, this also gives us the possibility to branch into other, more advanced construction services such as assembly and load-out of flexible flowline bundles.”
In the longer term, AOS hopes to bid for projects in other shallow water areas such as India’s west coast. “However, our intention at present is to consolidate our position in the Gulf region,” Thornton points out, “before saying we will take on the likes of J Ray McDermott, as we have only been going for 18 months. We need to cut our teeth on manageable projects, delivering high quality work, on time and, of course, on budget.”
Work completed to date by AOS includes upgrades/repairs for Hercules Offshore’s drilling jackupHercules 170 and lift boat Amberjack, as well as for Ensco on three of its jackups. AOS has undertaken programs on the Egyptian-owned pipelay barge PMS 12, McDermott’s DLB KP1, and NPCC’s DLB 1000. This is in addition to work on various liftboats, tugs, and offshore vessels owned by companies in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Switzerland, and Saudi Arabia.
First up was theHercules 170, a Sonat Offshore cantilever jackup built in 1981 and at present working in the Arabian Gulf. The original re-fit program included installation of new cranes, an additional diesel generator, and modifications to mud pump equipment.
Toward the end of the schedule, diver inspection revealed problems with the spud cans, necessitating urgent drydocking of the rig. ASRY’s graving dock already had four ships booked in for drydocking; but by moving two of the smaller vessels to the yard’s floating dock, AOS managed to re-arrange keel blocks quickly to accommodate the rig, completing repairs to spacers between the spud cans and the spuds and to fix contact damage. These measures prevented what might have been a 38-day delay to the underwater repairs.
“We saved further time by pre-fabricating the spud can components before the rig had entered the drydock,” Thornton adds.
Repair operations
This swift action encouraged Hercules Offshore to return to AOS this April for maintenance work on its Hercules Class 205/38 liftboatAmberjack. The intensive program included repairs to components in the legs, modifications to steelwork on the main deck, and installation of a new winch and an engine room CO2 system.
Other recent visitors were the jackupsEnsco 97 and Ensco 96, both Marathon Le Tourneau 82-SD-C designs which were built in the early 1980s. The program for the Ensco 97 included renewal of around 30 metric tons (33 tons) of steel in various parts of the hull; surveying of nodes and lattice work in the leg splash zone; renewal of spud can and leg anodes; and inspection of these items while the rig was berthed alongside ASRY’s 75-m (246-ft) wide graving dock.
The Egyptian owned pipelay bargePMS 12 was booked in for a limited work package, but on viewing the facilities, the owner committed to a wider program which involved replacing 500 tons (453 metric tons) of steel inside the tanks and on the hull and decks. AOS also changed four pumps and renovated the accommodations.
“We have done a lot of work on offshore supply and support vessels,” Thornton says, “for clients such as Halul Offshore Services, Zamil Operations and Maintenance, Red Sea Marine/Services, and Bourbon Greenmar. “A lot of contractors are interested in our slipways, as these can take virtually all types of supply boats, including vessels up to 140 m (459 ft) long and 5,000 dwt. We have also done work on FSOs and FSUs. Last year we had in six vessels owned by Petrobras for various programs. We are not in the FPSO conversion market per se but are able to handle construction of certain components such as the turret moorings as well as all the work to the hull, both externally and internally.”
A new client is Pride International, following the recent arrival at the yard of the drilling rigPride California. AOS currently is bidding a number of major conversions to clients in India as well as the AG region. It also hopes to land its first major offshore fabrication contract later in the year.
“We have had a high level of enquiries about our yard,” Thornton says. “In Bahrain, we have very good weather for year-round open-air blasting and painting. We can blast a rig in situ in the water. Most operators like this type of work to be performed alongside a drydock.
“Admittedly, the level of firm commitments has been tempered by the fluctuating oil price. If the price could stabilize at $75-80, that could get some projects off the deck. Saudi Aramco is a classic example, having stacked a lot of their offshore rigs: they need confidence in the oil price to resume high levels of activity.”
