wärtsilä to design new offshore maintenance jack-up

Wärtsilä to Design New Offshore Maintenance Jack-Up

April 5, 2016 | by gCaptain

Helsinki-headquartered Wärtsilä says it has been awarded a contract to design a new series of jack-up vessels to serve maintenance vessels in the offshore oil and gas. The new jack-up lift vessel is designed by Wärtsilä.

The company announced Tuesday it had signed the contract in March with a well known Chinese yard. The new design will be developed by Wärtsilä Ship Design in collaboration with Altis, a consultancy company specialising in the lift boat market. The contract includes options for three more vessels.

The lift boat design will be self-propelled and provide an offshore elevating platform with maneuvering capabilities to support various operations, including oil well intervention activities, and the maintenance, repairs, upgrades and removal of offshore rigs. Wärtsilä says that this latest design provides better performance compared to conventional designs, with improvements on crane capacity, MLC (Maritime Labour Convention) compliance, accommodation, operational water depth, and DP2 (Dynamic Positioning).

“Wärtsilä was chosen to design this new series of vessels because of our expertise, as well as our strong track record in the offshore market. Furthermore, our global engineering and project development services mean that we can be a valuable local partner to both the yard and the owner,” says Riku-Pekka Hägg, Vice President, Ship Design, Wärtsilä Marine Solutions.

The 70.5 meter long vessel can accommodate 250 people and will be capable of operating in water depths of up to 75 meters. It is scheduled for delivery to the customer in September, 2017.