PGS has completed its fleet expansion with the naming of its latest newbuild, the Ramform Hyperion, at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Shipbuilding yard in Nagasaki, Japan today (22 March).
The first vessel of the Ramform Titan-class came in 2013 with the delivery of Ramform Titan, which was followed by Ramform Atlas in 2014 and Ramform Tethys in 2016.
"The Ramform Hyperion completes our newbuild program and increases the productivity of the PGS fleet," says Per Arild Reksnes, Executive Vice President Operations.
"The four Ramform Titan-class vessels and the two Ramform S-class vessels constitute our core fleet of ultra-high-end Ramforms. These vessels can tow more streamers than any other vessel as well as tow extremely wide streamer spreads."
The completion of the newbuild program comes at a time when the seismic industry is still facing headwinds. According to PGS' latest presentation, 3D streamer vessel utilization, in streamer months, has been between about 35% and a peak of 65% between Q1 2014 and Q4 2016. PGS' backlog has 95% vessel booking for Q1 this year, then 60% for Q2 and 15% for Q3 and Q4.
But, with its new fleet, the firm says it has the lowest cash cost per streamer. In its Q4 2016 results, the firm it expects 3D marine seismic acquisition to be higher than in 2016.
The Ramform design was created by Roar Ramde in the early 1990's and has been taken to its ultimate expression by the Ramform Titan-class vessels.
The Ramform Titan-class design merges advanced maritime technology with the imaging capabilities of the GeoStreamer seismic acquisition technology. The 70m broad stern allows space for 24 streamer reels: 16 reels aligned abreast and eight reels further forward, with capacity for 12km streamers on each reel.
Jon Erik Reinhardsen, President and CEO of PGS, says the four Ramform Titan-class vessels set a new standard for seismic operations for the next 25 years.
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