Geoquip upgrades geotechnical vessel for US wind farm project

Feb. 24, 2020
Offshore geotechnical engineering and drilling contractor Geoquip Marine has completed a conversion and upgrade of its recently acquired geotechnical vessel, Geoquip Speer.

Offshore staff

ST GALLEN, Switzerland – Offshore geotechnical engineering and drilling contractor Geoquip Marine has completed a conversion and upgrade of its recently acquired geotechnical vessel, Geoquip Speer.

It is now said to be suitable for international DP operations.

As part of the refit the Speer’s moonpool design was opened, allowing it to be fitted with a fully heave-compensated offshore geotechnical drilling rig and a deepwater seabed cone penetrometer test unit, the GMC201.

The latter is designed to perform various in situ tests on the seabed in shallow or deepwater, and is deployed through the vessel’s moonpool using a dedicated launch and recovery system.

Earlier in 2019, Geoquip Marine took delivery of the 2010-built, 84-m (275-ft) long DP-2 multi-purpose offshore support vessel Geoquip Saentis (ex-MV Cristal).

The Geoquip Speer’s first assignment will be seabed CPT work for what is said to be the largest offshore wind farm development in the US.

02/24/2020