A Large Rig Carrying Ship

[chrisj_abz]

have spent a few weeks on the Thialf, and the slightly smaller sister vessel Hermod. when i was on the thialf it installed a couple subsea templates, a big new riser on the Claymore platform and a windfarm sub station platform off germany. the rates i heard match whats been said earlier.

big monster things, but amazing to watch in action.

Have had a lot of dealings with Allseas in the past, but mostly the ROV division.

[cts1975]

Great topic this. My old chap works for BP on the design side of things.
He worked in the Hyundai yard in South Korea and I'm sure he emailed me some pics.
I'm pretty sure something big fell off a barge mid lift and he sent me some pics.
He's currentley working on a BP Azerbaijan project.
I will have a look for some pics.

[Mr Pies]

doogz said:

I've got a couple of decent pictures of the AMT Trader with QEC LB03 on her, sailing down the Clyde a few months back.

But i'm not allowed to post them

Why not?

[motomk]

chrisj_abz said:

and the slightly smaller sister vessel Hermod.

Ah, I am not in the water business but I have heard of that one. Had to find a picture of it to realise it is not an oil rig but an oil rig making machine.

When they have to move around the globe, do they empty out the ballast totally so it zooms around on pontoons? or does it stay semi surmerged?

[dr_gn]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

Mr Pies said:

Why not?

Defence contract stuff.
Secret Squirrel - just limited to publications in the Newspapers, TV, etc.

On a different topic - about 10 years ago did you ever hear about a McDermott concept for a spar-barge system, whereby the barge carrying the topsides attached itself to the top of a spar (via two huge hydraulic pins), and then the topsides slid over to the spar?

Also I remember at Offshore Aberdeen one year there was a concept of a huge yellow tubular thing for installing jackets and topsides. Like a semi-sub, but with no apparent topsides of its own. Did anything ever come of that?

[chrisj_abz]

Thialf was self propelled, but usually had a tug assisting when transiting anywhere..

[dr_gn]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

dr_gn said:

Also I remember at Offshore Aberdeen one year there was a concept of a huge yellow tubular thing for installing jackets and topsides. Like a semi-sub, but with no apparent topsides of its own. Did anything ever come of that?

Again, wasn't that another of these wonderful 'imagination' alternative approaches ?

"The Offshore Shuttle "?

Circa 2000 !!

That's the one! Was going to put all the heavy lift vessels out of business IIRC...

[XJSJohn]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

motomk said:

When they have to move around the globe, do they empty out the ballast totally so it zooms around on pontoons? or does it stay semi surmerged?

Get outta my Way !




versus "Working Draft"

I daren't even think how many tons / hour that is burning!!! Very impressive!

[Mr Pies]

Guys for someone who loves big engineering like myself, these pictures are absolute porn! Please keep them coming.

I would love to work on large ships one day but I fear at 30 years of age I am too old now. Plus I doubt my electrical qualifications would be of use to the maritime industry.

[MonkeyBusiness]

How do you get the rigs on/off the ship? They can't slide off can they?

[Steve_D]

MonkeyBusiness said:

How do you get the rigs on/off the ship? They can't slide off can they?

The rigs themselves float but cannot deal with moving far at sea.
The ship floods balast tanks and in effect sinks until only its superstructure is still above water.
The rig is then manuvered into position above the sunken deck.
The balast tanks are then pumped out until the ship surfaces with the rig on deck.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly with some pictures or video of the process.

Steve

[MonkeyBusiness]

Steve_D said:

The rigs themselves float but cannot deal with moving far at sea.
The ship floods balast tanks and in effect sinks until only its superstructure is still above water.
The rig is then manuvered into position above the sunken deck.
The balast tanks are then pumped out until the ship surfaces with the rig on deck.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly with some pictures or video of the process.

Steve

Thanks Steve.
If anyone has any vids I would love to see them. Sounds easy but I bet a big task.

[scottyegg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soSuAB8S5x8

[Lefty]

Unloading depends on the quayside to be honest. In a deepwater port the hlv can get in and just lift the items onto her deck. Otherwise, the vessel will get to sheltered waters and rendezvous with a barge to lift the modules from.

Sometimes they use crawler skids which run in tracks on the deck and quayside. I'll get some pics at work tomorrow.

Cheers

[Mr Pies]

Lefty said:

I'll get some pics at work tomorrow.

Cheers

[scottyegg]

If the rig, isnt a semi sub and is it a fixed position ontop of a jacket the following would apply:-

either the platform is picket up by heavy lift bogies, like in the image below and basically driven onto the awaiting barge



or, the platform is skidded out using, skidbeams and strandjacks below.... the wire strang jack system can be seen pulling the rig out of the shed, the beams sit on teflon type pads which are lubricated, although i belive there are a few ways todo this

[Parsnip]

Of course, one option is just attach your rig to the ship



If you look closely, you can see where I'm sat at the moment - down and to the right of the derricks.

She isn't the biggest going, but I was still shocked that we are munching through 80-100 tons of diesel a day just keeping the ship oriented.

[anonymous-user]

Parsnip said:

but I was still shocked that we are munching through 80-100 tons of diesel a day just keeping the ship oriented.

I wonder if constantly rising petrol prices will make these amazing 'ships' too expensive to operate?

[Parsnip]

el stovey said:

Parsnip said:

but I was still shocked that we are munching through 80-100 tons of diesel a day just keeping the ship oriented.

I wonder if constantly rising petrol prices will make these amazing 'ships' too expensive to operate?

Doubt it, the rig cost here is ~$1M a day, 100 tons of diesel (even at fuel pump prices, which they won't be paying) isn't that much - it is even less when you look at the volume of oil/gas you can produce by actually drilling the hole.

Gotta speculate to accumulate

[scottyegg]

i also wonder if there fuel comes direct from the refinaries, i.e no govenment taxation ect