M/V «SKANDI AFRICA»

M/V «SKANDI AFRICA» of VARD 3 12 design was delivered from Vard Søviknes to the Owners, DOF Subsea Rederi AS, on 23rd March 2015 as the yard’s hull no. 800.

After the hand-over to the Owners, the vessel headed for Huisman Schiedam quayside for final outfitting, including the pipelay tower, a knuckle boom crane and the 900 metric tons pedestal mounted crane.

DOF Management AS is the ship’s manager, and the vessel is on long-term charter to Technip under a contract concluded in February 2014. This company is reckoned to be amongst the world leaders in project management, engineering and constructions for the energy industry. The company has a presence in 48 countries.

Within the domain of subsea hydrocarbon field development, Technip’s activities cover the design, manufacture and installation of rigid and flexible subsea pipelines and umbilicals. The Group has four flexible pipe manufacturing plants, four umbilical production units, four reeled rigid pipe spoolbases and a constantly evolving fleet of vessels that is strategically deployed to serve the world’s major markets.

M/V «SKANDI AFRICA» – Ship of the Year 2015

On 2nd June 2015 at Nor-Shipping this vessel was given SKIPSREVYEN’s “Ship of the Year” award presented by Norway’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Monica Mæland.

The shipbuilding contract was entered into in February 2013, and it was then stated that this was the largest DOF Group vessel at that time. The hull was built at Vard Tulcea in Romania. The newbuilding is a turnkey project, including the top-side equipment.

The vessel is specially designed and equipped for subsea operation duties with a high focus on good sea-keeping capabilities, excellent station keeping performances and low fuel consumption. The vessel has an optimized hull form, and bow shape optimized for all weather conditions together with the specified propulsion configuration. Catalytic converters are installed on all main diesel generators for emissions reduction.

The DP class 3 vessel is designed for harsh environment and deepwater subsea construction and flexlay operations, up to 3,000 m depth.

The ship’s top-side features a 900 metric tons (double fall)/450 m.t. (single fall) pedestal mounted crane with subsea lowering system and combined active and passive heave compensation system. Total wire length is 4,400m (drum capacity 6,000m). Further, there is a 650 m.t. tiltable lay system for flexible pipes and pipe storage equipment with 3,500 m.t. basket.

The ROV hangar is equipped with two heavy duty work ROV’s launched through moonpools to 4,000 m water depth. The moonpools have damping zones, according to Vard Design’s R&D sea keeping capabilities program.

The sheer size of this vessel is quite impressive with 160.9 meters length overall and breadth of 32.0 meters (equivalent to maximum Panama Canal passage today).

The Shipowner

DOF Subsea is a leading provider of subsea services in all the major oil and gas production regions around the world. With a world class fleet of offshore vessels, ROVs (Remote Operated Vehicles), diving and survey systems, the group combines expertise and technology to deliver integrated subsea solutions to the offshore oil and gas industry.

The two core business segments are long-term charter agreements for the fleet and the execution of complex subsea operations to depths of 4,000 metres, using owned and operated, purpose-built vessels.

As per 31st of March 2015 the Group’s fleet comprised 22 owned vessels, 5 chartered in vessels and 4 vessels under construction. All vessels under construction are progressing as planned with delivery of the first vessel expected in June 2016 and the last one in June 2017. As of the beginning of the year the company operated 54 ROV systems, including 1 AUV/IIV system, and 10 diving spreads.

The shipyard

The VARD Group is one of the major global designers and shipbuilders of offshore and specialized vessels used in the offshore oil & gas exploration and production & oil services industries. Headquartered in Norway and with 10,000 employees, VARD operates ten strategically located shipbuilding facilities, including five in Norway, two in Romania, two in Brazil and one in Vietnam. The Group’s expertise and track record in constructing complex and highly customized offshore and specialized vessels have earned it recognition from industry players and enabled it to build strong relationships with its customers.

VARD delivered five vessels during first quarter of 2015, and the order book value as per 31 March 2015 amounted to NOK 15.6 billion. The order book comprised 32 vessels, of which 18 are of VARD’s own design.

Ship price

While Skipsrevyen is not privy to the newbuilding price for «Skandi Africa», including all the expensive equipment, another newbuilding contract concluded half a year later by the DOF Subsea/Technip joint venture to be built at Vard yards can give some indications. That newbuilding contract was in turn based on contracts entered into with Petrobras valued at a total of about NOK 10 billion, and covered in total four units, of which two to be outfitted at Vard Søviknes and the other two delivered from Vard Promar in Brazil.

This order was according to the shipyard the largest in VARD’s history. The total value was given as about NOK 6.5 billion. The Norwegian units, measuring 151 x 30 m L x B, were at the time planned to be outfitted with pipe lay towers rated at 650 tons. Huisman will actually supply the topside equipment also for these ships.

Based on being built in Norway, and including all the advanced equipment onboard the ship, our guesstimate is therefore that the total price for «Skandi Africa» exceeds NOK 2 billion.

M/V «SKANDI AFRICA»

The vessel flies Bahamas flag with Nassau as home port. The vessel is built according to DNV GL class @1A1, Winterized Basic, ICE-1B, Offshore Service Vessel, SPS, SF, LFL*, COMF-V(3)C(3), HELDK-SH, DEICE, E0, DYNPOS-AUTRO, NAUT-AW, CLEAN DESIGN, VIBR, Recyclable, BWM-T, DK(+), BIS. The vessel has the following

main particulars:

Length o.a. .......................................................................................................... 160.90 m

Length b.p.p. ...................................................................................................... 147.50 m

Breadth mld. ......................................................................................................... 32.00 m

Depth mld. ............................................................................................................ 12.50 m

Draft max. ............................................................................................................... 9.50 m

DW ....................................................................................................................... 13,393 t

DW excl. TLS ....................................................................................................... 16,000 t

GT ........................................................................................................................... 22689

NT ............................................................................................................................. 6807

Cargo deck area ................................................................................................... 2,700 m2

Under deck storage ................................................................................................. 3,500 t

IMO no. .............................................................................................................. 9687459

The tank capacities are about 2600 m3 fuel oil, about 800 m3 fresh water and about 13,000 m3 ballast water.

Machinery

The vessel has two engine rooms. There is redundant power supply for top-side equipment. The diesel electric propulsion system comprises four B32:40L8ADC Bergen generator diesel engines of 3840 kW each and two B32:40L9 generator engines of 4320 kW each and three Rolls-Royce Contaz 35 propulsion azimuth thrusters of 3700 kW each of contra-rotating propeller type.

To achieve the best possible manoeuvring capabilities the vessel is equipped with two ULE 255 FP retractable thrusters of 2200 kW each and two RRM TT 3300 AUX CP manoeuvring tunnel thrusters of 2800 kW each.

The emergency generator set has a Cummins KTA38 diesel engine of 560 kW. The vessel’s max. speed (before mounting of topside) was about 17.2 knots at 7.5m draft.

Ing. Per Gjerdrum is the supplier of pump equipment for the engine room and has also delivered the ballast water treatment plant, fresh water generator and heat exchangers. The Selective Catalytic Reduction system has been provided by Yara, Germany.

Compressors are of Sperre and TMC makes, and bilge water separators are from GEA Westfalia. Vard Accommodation HVAC has taken care of the ventilation plant, including installations.

The engine room is equipped with a watermist fire fighting system from Marioff, installed by Helland Rør, and foam extinguishing system from Turoteknikk.

Deck

In addition to above-mentioned top-side and ROV equipments, the vessel is equipped with moonpool on deck measuring 7.2 x 9.4 m and 2 off moonpools for WROV’s of 5.0 X 5.6 m.

Huisman’s scope of supplies include the subsea crane, the 150 m.t. knuckle boom offshore crane, the tiltable lay system and the 3,500 t basket with equipment (see separate article).

The helideck which measures 28.5 m in diameter, is a delivery from Maritime Product, Libra-Plast has supplied external doors and hydraulic watertight doors come fra IMS. Gurskøy is supplier of gangway, including safety net. Anchor and chains are products from Fossen Shipping. Amdam Sag has provided wooden deck.

Other crane deliveries come from TTS (deck cranes), Seaonics (ROV hangar) and Munck Cranes. Winches are supplied by Palfinger Marine (NDM). The procurement of moonpool LARS, moonpool hatch and skidding system has been handled by Rolls-Royce.

The applied paint systems are AkzoNobel’s International Paint products. Impressed current cathodic protection and impressed current anti fouling protection systems are supplied by Corrosion W Control.

The vessel has lifesaving equipment such as 100% lifeboats coverage on each side with 4 x 70 persons lifeboats and two fast rescue crafts – all supplied by Harding, including davits, while life rafts are of Viking make. Survitec has taken care of various safety equipment.

Accommodation

M/V «SKANDI AFRICA» is constructed for a complement of 140 persons with 11 executive single cabins, 49 single cabins and 40 double cabins. R&M Ship Interior has performed the interior work and outfitting. The toilet system is from Jets, and Teamtec has provided incinerator. Loading calculator is supplied by Kongsberg Maritime.

Vard Electro has performed the electrical installations onbord the ship and has supplied main- and emergency switchboards. The same company has delivered bridge and ECR consoles.

Electronic equipment

The DP3 system, which gives excellent station keeping performance and high redundancy in operational modes, is supplied by Kongsberg Maritime (see separate article). The electronic navigation and communication equipment is supplied by Molde-based O. Øverland