As the last throes of winter ushered in the grey, misty weather upon the mighty Mississippi River in early March, a soon to be familiar visitor in the Gulf of Mexico sat docked at the Port of New Orleans, Island Offshore’s newbuild subsea support vessel Island Performer.
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The Island Performer at the Port of New Orleans. Photos from FMC Technologies. |
Built in 2014, the vessel is under a five-year contract with FTO Services, a joint venture between FMC Technologies and Edison Chouest Offshore, in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Island Performer, which recently completed its first job investigating the sea bottom in Norway, hoped to drum up local business while in town, and laissez les bon temps rouler (let the good times roll), as the locals say.
The vessel has been equipped with a new deepwater riserless light well intervention stack from FMC Technologies, which enables the vessel to carry out well interventions at depths of up to 6500ft (2000m) and pressures of 10,000psi. The intervention tower sits just over the 8m x 8m moon pool, which is over the ship’s center of gravity.
The Island Performer is an Ulstein-designed SX121 model, built by the Ulstein Verft shipyard. It is a DP3 vessel measuring 427ft (130m) long, and it comes equipped with a 250-tonne active heave compensated crane with below deck winch.
It also comes with two UHD deep-sea ROVs provided by C-Innovation. ROV operators, working in 12-hour shifts, can view operations from a comfortable control room onboard. A trainer with C-Innovation said that operators meticulously log information about the wells, whether they’ve worked on a specific piece or not to ensure proper documentation for future planning purposes.
During a tour of the vessel, an FTO spokesman said that in the event that the vessel begins to shift during operations, the stack is designed to shear off the tool and seal the well.
In addition to well intervention work, the Island Performer can also undertake installation and commissioning activities, acid stimulation, scale treatment, hydrate remediation, and inspection, maintenance, and repair (IMR) work.
The Island Performer is a Norwegian comfort class vessel with accommodations for 130. The interior of the vessel impressively cuts down much of the noise pollution and vibration from its diesel electric propulsion system.
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