Page 9: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 1998)

jards both circumstances under lich disconnection is required d connecting-up can be made, tter ensuring dependability and itinuity of supplies. The gener- on of shuttle tanker encapsulat- in Navion Britannia is con- eive to the flexible operating >file and services provided by ivanger-based Navion, which )loys vessels in a multi-field, lti-customer trading pattern in >port of contracts of affreight- nt (COAs). A product of accom- shed shuttle tanker builder illeros Espanoles (AESA), the v Norwegian crude carrier's j facility complements her stan- d, top bow loading (BL) station 3 a conventional midship mani- . Under STL arrangements, the merged and moored STL buoy, ited in the vicinity of the off- re accumulation, is pulled into bottom of the foreship hull sec- of an arriving shuttle tanker, loading hose runs through the y to a swivel, or rotating con- ;or, which enables the ship to thervane freely, remaining -on to wind and waves. The em is currently in use on the ), Njord, Harding and Heidrun s of the Norwegian Sea and hern North Sea, and has also t specified for the Aasgard C ige ship. Oil storage has, in been superseded on Heidrun le use of two parallel STL sys- s, in a solution dubbed direct tie loading (DSL). Not only t reduced costs by eliminating leed for a storage vessel, it has red availability of supplies in periods of extreme weath-

Javion reports that DSL on run has achieved normal load- egularity at times when other 5 have been compelled to limit action or temporarily shut i. Two 131,000-dwt diesel- *ic shuttle tankers delivered >95 by AESA to Statoil, the r shareholder in Navion, died the STL system, as does nulti-purpose shuttle tanker ') class currently deployed in iction/drill ship configura-

L also forms part of a new

I concept proposed by Navion ading and transporting oil in : waters, arising from a feasi- study for a field development irthern Russia. The Arctic le is based on the use of a se-designed oil barge, pro- l by a pusher icebreaker, can also be decoupled to act ure icebreaker in particular- ficult conditions. On the field, the barge would be connected to an STL system specially rein- forced for use in ice. When not engaged in attending and transfer- ring the carrying unit, the ice- breaker tug would be available to perform additional functions such as supply duties, icebreaking around the installations, and potentially also firefighting, rescue response and oil spill clean-up.

The discovery for which the

STL-based integrated tug-barge solution has been advocated lies in an area covered with ice up to more than a meter thick for as much as seven or eight months of the year.

Ice can often raft as much as 5-m high and extend more than 12-m below water level.

Adapted to STL technology, a system designated submerged tur- ret production (STP) has also been specified and adopted for the

Lufeng field off China and

Britain's Pierce development.

Navion Britannia has been pre- pared for STP duties, if required at some stage, giving her added long- term operating versatility.

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