MTR 100: Ulstein

Posted by Irina Tabakina

Norway’s Ulstein is the first name in design and construction for vessels serving the offshore industry. The Ulstein Verft subsea newbuild, Island Performer, was delivered to ship owner Island Offshore, yet another in a long line of flexible, state-of-the-art RLWI/IMR vessels from innovator and MTR100 company Ulstein Verft.  “The vessel is customized to suit the scope of work in the FTO contract, in which RLWI (Riser-less Light Well Intervention) and IMR (Inspection/Maintenance/Repair) are the main tasks. She is able to perform operations at depths down to 3,000 m, and the contracted work start at year’s end,” said Håvard Ulstein, Managing Director, Island Offshore. “However, the very first assignment will be for the RogFast connection in Norway, in which the scope of work will be to investigate the sea bottom.”
“A large intervention tower is placed over the 8 x 8-m main moon pool. She is equipped with a 250-ton AHC (active heave compensated) offshore crane with a below-deck winch, and carries two deep-sea work ROVs, one to be launched through a dedicated moon pool and the other from the starboard side,” said Ulstein.
 ‘Island Performer’ is the next generation subsea vessel from Ulstein, with large accommodation, storage and lifting capacities. She meets the highest standards for station keeping, redundancy and dynamic positioning (DNV GL class notation DYNPOS AUTRO, equivalent to DP3). Additionally, operability in DYNPOS AUTR (DP2) operational mode is maximized due to the ‘Operation+’ feature with a three-split configuration on main machinery. This set-up allows the vessel to retain system integrity and to continue operations uninterruptedly even after a substantial single system failure.
A shelter deck is stretching all the way past the main moon pool and aft to the main crane. This increases the operational window for moon pool work and offers a shielded space for various equipment. Arranged on the shelter deck is a multi-skidding system for handling 100-tonne skidding pallets. The design also includes a heavy-load cargo deck for transporting equipment for a multitude of operations and construction work.
“Island Offshore has previous experience with this design,” said Håvard Ulstein. “The two SX121 designed vessels already in our fleet have proved to be very successful to us. We are certain that the ‘Island Performer’ will achieve good results in complex deep water operations in the Gulf of Mexico.” 
FTO is a joint venture between FMC Technologies, Edison Chouest Offshore and Island Offshore.
CEO Gunvor Ulstein, Ulstein Group, said “The three contracting companies combined have extensive competence in the advanced subsea segment. Together, we have developed a solution which is particularly adapted to both RLWI and IMR work, and we strongly believe that the ‘Island Performer’ will prove her value in the years to come.”
 

(As published in the July/Aug 2014 edition of Marine Technology Reporter - http://www.marinetechnologynews.com/Magazine)

Marine Technology Magazine, page 64, Jul 2014

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