Page 42: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2005)

42 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

By David Tinsley

Norway's propensity for highly-capable, state-of-the- art support vessels to match the evolving needs of the offshore oil and gas industry continues to find expres- sion in the prolific output from the country's west coast yards. As a fountainhead of offshore service vessel design, construction and technology, Ulstein Verft has provided a new showcase for its capabilities by way of the platform supply ship Bourbon Topaz. Delivered to

Bourbon Offshore Norway, part of the French-con- trolled Groupe Bourbon, the smart new work vessel embodies the Ulstein P105 design, suited to operations worldwide as well as to deployment on the rigorous

North Sea.

Groupe Bourbon has indicated an ambition to be a world leader within the offshore segment, and its

Norwegian affiliate is in expansion mode. It took over a Norwegian offshore supply and support fleet through the 2003 acquisition of Havila Supply. Bourbon Topaz is the ninth platform supply vessel in the fleet, and a further P105 has been booked from Ulstein Verft.

Bourbon Offshore Norway's managing director,

Jostein Saetrenes, said it meant a lot to his company that it has been able to participate in, and contribute to the development and strengthening of the maritime cluster in the Sunnmore region of western Norway.

The 4,848-dwt Bourbon Topaz offers a high degree of cargo carrying flexibility suited to the manifold con- sumables, materials and equipment need to sustain off- shore industry activities. Her large, open deck area and substantial pipe carrying capacity over four pipe lengths complement special underdeck tankage for drilling materials, all types of liquids including methanol and glycol, and fuel.

As with many of the modern generation of

Norwegian ships, she has a diesel-electric power and propulsion plant, conferring a host of operating bene- fits and enabling changing power needs to be more precisely and efficiently matched over the complete operating cycle. The vessel also provides a reference for the Rolls-Royce Ulstein Aquamaster Azipull sys- tem, used for her two main propulsors, and features a forward transverse thruster and swing-up thruster as a mark of her maneuvering and dynamic positioning attributes.

The construction process has entailed fabrication of the aftship in Poland and that of the forepart sections at

Ulstein's Vanylven and Ulsteinvik premises, with hull assembly, outfitting and completion at Ulsteinvik. The same arrangements have been adopted for the second

Bourbon P105 newbuild. The expansion-minded oper- ator has recently also signed a contract with the Ulstein yard for one of the latter's home-grown A102-type anchor-handlers, and has taken out an option on a sec- ond such vessel.

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NorShipping 2005

Maritime Cluster Holds Good

Bourbon Offshore Norway has ordered an ULSTEIN

A102 anchor handling vessel from Ulstein Verft.

Schottel Powers Ahead

Schottel GmbH & Co. KG in Spay on the River

Rhine in Germany is the headquarters of an inter- national Group of companies with a worldwide sales and service network. Besides azimuthing propulsion systems and maneuvering devices,

Schottel also supplies conventional propulsion packages with a power rating of up to 30 MW for vessels of all kinds and sizes. SCHOTTEL is show- ing its range of innovative products and services on stand C 03-01A within the German Group at

NorShipping.

The current Schottel range encompasses in partic- ular: Rudderpropellers (SRP) up to 6000 kW; Twin-

Propellers (STP) up to 3500 kW; Navigators (NAV) up to 1000 kW; Combi Drives (SCD) up to 3800 kW in single propeller version with nozzle or twin propeller version; Podded

Drives (SEP and SSP) up to 20 MW; Pump-Jets (SPJ) up to 3500 kW; Transverse

Thrusters (STT) up to 1400 kW; controllable-pitch pro- peller plants (SCP) up to 30,000 kW; including shaft- ing, rudder systems, and remote control devices, as well as tailor-made steering and control systems.

Schottel recently won the order for five 425 ft. (129.5 m) double-ended LNG fer- ries which will be built by

Aker Brattvaag AS for

Fjord1 Fylkesbaatane,

Norway. They will operate between Bergen and Stavanger. The vessels were designed by LMG Marine in Bergen, and extensive model testing was carried out by Marintek,

Trondheim. Three ferries will be equipped with four gas-electric Schottel Combi Drives (type SCD 2020) each (4 x 2750 kW, twin propeller version).

They are designed for a speed of 21 knots. The other two ferries of identical design will be equipped with four mechanical Schottel Twin

Propellers (type STP 1515 - 1600 kW each), giving the vessels a cruising speed of 17 knots.

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Stromme Buys NME

Stromme ASA strengthened its product range of maritime equipment through the purchase of

Norwegian Maritime Equipment AS (NME).

Stromme has a strong sales position with shipown- ers, cruise and management companies and NME is well established within shipyards and offshore industry. Over the last few years both Stromme and

NME have developed their own branded products in collaboration with leading manufacturers.

Through our four product areas: Marine Products,

Marine Spares, Marine Service and Marine &

Offshore supply, will we continue to offer our clients a wide product range expertise on technical products / service and logistics.

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Drawing of a Schottel

Combi Drive (twin pro- peller version)

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