Propulsion specialist KaMeWa welcomes the trend towards increased use of production ships. These vessels need thrusters, which is a KaMeWa specialty. But the accompanying need for offshore loading also presents opportunities for the company.
Recently, it won orders to supply thrusters for three floater projects. These are
- A vessel under construction in Singapore. KaMeWa is supplying five 2,800kW rotatable thrusters of fixed pitch type.
- Texaco's Captain vessel, under construction at the Astano yard in Spain. Here the order is for two 2,800kW rotatable thrusters of controlled pitch type.
- BP's Foinaven vessel, a conversion under way at Astano under sub-contract to Golar Nor. KaMeWa is supplying two 2,400kW thrusters of controlled pitch type. Recently it also provided one of the 2 2.4MW thrusters for the upgrade of the Polycastle accommodation rig.
Currently the company has no orders for thrusters for shuttle tankers, although two years ago it supplied the main propulsion system and thrusters for Neste's Futura and Natura shuttles. Natura is to be modified using Statoil's submerged turret loading technology. Although no modification to the thrusters is apparently needed here, KaMeWa's project manager for propulsion systems Lars Lanberg is hopeful that new STL project opportunities will emerge elsewhere soon.
For anchor handling tugs, KaMeWa has introduced the Mark IV Z-Drive thruster, which features enhanced station keeping due to fine thrust control. This is effected through use of an internal multi-disc clutch which allows running of the propeller all the way down to zero rpm.r
For more information contact Olof Malmqvist, KaMeWa: telephone +46 550 84000 or fax +46 550 18190.
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