Judy Maksoud • Houston
Bollinger builds new supply boat
Bollinger Shipyards Inc. has delivered two newly designed offshore supply vessels to L & M Bo-Truc Rental Inc. Bollinger delivered the M/V Cheramie Botruc 38 early this summer, and the second vessel, Cheramie Botruc 39, in late September, following builder's trials.
The vessels are the latest in a new 191-ft platform supply boat design that meets new regulatory requirements. In addition to being 191 ft in length, the new boats have a beam of 46 ft and a 15-ft depth. The vessels will work in the Gulf of Mexico.
Topsides move offshore
The South Venture topsides is the largest offshore component ever built in Nova Scotia. Exxon Mobil Corp., operator of the Sable Offshore Energy Project (SOEP), commissioned the Halifax Shipyard to build the structure in late 2002. Construction began in January 2003.
The unmanned 3,000-metric-ton topsides, which is about five stories high, will produce 160 MMcf/d of gas.
Heerema Marine Contractors' heavy-lift vessel, Hermod, transported the topsides to the site near Sable Island, where it was positioned on four legs already anchored in place.
M/V Cheramie Botruc 38, Bollinger's new 191-ft platform supply boat meets all new regulatory requirements for the GoM.
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South Venture will be the fifth producing platform in the $2-billion SOEP natural gas project. The other fields are North Triumph, Venture, Thebaud, and Alma.
SOEP is the first offshore natural gas project in Atlantic Canada to deliver gas to the Maritime provinces and to the northeastern US via the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline.
Aries expands fleet
Aries Marine Corp. of Lafayette, Louisiana, is adding a deepwater platform supply vessel (PSV) to its supply boat division. The company has placed an order for a newbuild PSV to complement its existing fleet of offshore supply vessels. Aries Marine owns and operates nine offshore supply vessels and 14 liftboats.
The 220 ft by 54 ft by 19 ft Entech & Associates designed PSV, M/V Abigail Claire, will be US Coast Guard inspected and fully classed by the American Bureau of Shipping.
Delivery is expected in February 2005. ;
ABS releases new guide
The American Bureau of Shipping recently released its "Guide for the Buckling and Ultimate Strength Assessment of Offshore Structures," for achieving optimum levels of structural security and safety for offshore structures.
ABS can now classify FPSOs as offshore structures rather than as steel vessels, according to Ernesto Valenzuela, ABS offshore technology manager.
"Because FPSOs are moored, they do not have to weather the same conditions as vessels, streamlining the classification process," Valenzuela says. The new guide provides a set of stand-alone structural criteria when used with the "Guide for the Fatigue Assessment of Offshore Structures," released in April 2003.
"Together, the two guides create a comprehensive and effective design tool that will help engineers and surveyors with the process of certifying and classing offshore structures," Valenzuela says.
According to ABS, the guide uses the largest existing test database of component failure as a reference point to benchmark the new buckling formulas. An appendix to the guide reviews the analytical concepts of the finite element method to establish buckling capacities. The guide is available for free download from the ABS website at: http://www.eagle.org/ rules/downloads/126-BUS.pdf.
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New semi undergoes testing
GlobalSantaFe designed the GSF Development Driller I to meet deepwater drilling challenges, and it is optimized for development drilling and subsea completion projects. Its design includes 18,000 sq ft of useable deck space and more than 7,000 metric tons of variable deck load. The rig's dynamic positioning and self-contained mooring systems can be supplemented with up to eight additional mooring lines for increased flexibility in varying conditions.
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