Innovative Sea of Solutions Pipelay Vessel to be Built

The Larsen & Toubro/SapuraCrest Petroleum Bhd joint venture has ordered a new-generation heavy-lift/pipelay vessel designed by Sea of Solutions, part of the Offshore Ship Designers Group. Sea of Solutions was responsible for both the concept design and basic design of the $138m vessel, which will enter service in 2009. The S2500 pipelay vessel will be built by ASL Marine, Singapore.

The S2500 design is a customised version of the Sea of Solutions’ Seabarge 3000 design, featuring a more shipshape hull with bulbous bow, increasing transit speed and generating additional space for the mooring system without consequences for DP lay-out. The S2500 has a 10-point mooring system and can be upgraded to DP.

The design incorporates a centre firing line with 6 single joint welding stations to optimise pipelaying operations. Furthermore, the vessel is equipped with a 3,000 short ton single post crane. For this project, Sea of Solutions teamed up with Deltamarin of Finland, one of its engineering partners.

Bob Rietveldt, commercial director of Sea of Solutions, is proud that again one of their newbuild designs is being built. “There haven’t been any modern dedicated derrick/pipelay vessels built over the past 15 to 20 years. To our knowledge the S2500 is now the second newbuild, only preceded by the Sapura 3000 presently being built by the Sembawang/Huisman consortium, which is also based on our design,” he says. “These new designs bring substantial innovations to speed operations and deliver cost savings to operators.”

Rietveldt expects more contracts will be signed this year for innovative offshore vessels based on Sea of Solutions designs. “Over the past five years,” he says, “we have worked hard to build up a track record as innovative designers for offshore construction vessels and drill ships. It’s great to see the results now, especially as we have formed Offshore Ship Designers, giving us a critical mass of engineering skills and talent.”

Sea of Solutions develops projects for operators, contractors and ship owners in the exploration, construction and production market, as well as the maritime transport market. It is a private company providing products and services on an independent and confidential basis. Beside designs for newbuild vessels, the company is actively involved in upgrade and conversion projects for existing offshore vessels.

Sea of Solutions is part of the Offshore Ship Designers (OSD) Group, which is a global one-stop resource delivering naval architecture and marine engineering skills to the shipping and offshore energy industries. It draws on an experienced global workforce to provide high-quality feasibility studies, conceptual and detailed designs for tugs and offshore support vessels of all types, deepwater drilling, installation, derrick and pipelay vessels, heavy lift vessels and innovative environmentally-friendly solutions for FPSOs and FSUs. OSD is based in IJmuiden, The Netherlands, and has offices in Vlaardingen, Montrose, York and Shanghai.

For more information:

Bob Rietveldt
Sea of Solutions BV,
+31 10 475 00 11,
[email protected]
http://www.seaofsolutions.nl