IHC Engineering Business, part of IHC Merwede, is benefiting from a demand for greater capacity in the pipelay market.
It is currently working on five orders from Seabras Sapura for 550-tonne capacity vertical flex lay systems (FLS) to be installed onboard fully integrated IHC Merwede newbuild vessels. These are due to be deployed globally, with delivery of the first vessel due in Q2 2014, to enable activity to start on Petrobras projects in Brazil. The 550-tonne capacity FLS system consists of a twin, four-track tensioner system, with a maximum dynamic line tension of 600-tonne. It can accommodate a product range from 50mm to 648mm, and has a primary and secondary abandonment and recovery system and tower tilt functionality.
For these projects, IHC EB subcontracted some of the scope to SAS Offshore, based in Alphen, Netherlands, which is providing 300-tonne four-track tensioners. This year IHC EB has already supplied McDermott with a 300-tonne capacity vertical FLS, to upgrade the horizontal FLS of the North Ocean 102 for work in the North Sea, and, early next year, it will deliver a 300-tonne capacity system to SapuraKencana for Petrobras operations. Sea trials were recently completed on a 450-tonne capacity reel lay system on Technip’s flagship vessel Deep Energy. Once in service, Deep Energy will be one of the fastest pipelay vessel ever built.