Ulster Show Sophisticated Multipurpose offshore Construction Vessel
Ulstein Recently revealed its new dynamically positioned multipurpose construction vessel of the S182 design, suitable for shallow water operations Offshore Energy reports.
According to the company, the main design driver was to develop a DP vessel with good capabilities to support various offshore operations, including cable lay and offshore construction.
The vessel offers a combination of deck area, accommodation and station keeping capability for a compact vessel. Ulstein says that this results in a cost-efficient platform capable of supporting a wide variety of operations such as cable laying, offshore construction, shallow water installation, dive support, rock installation, and salvage works.
The mooring and DP2 (optionally DP3) station keeping capability, in combination with the large endurance and adequate transit speed, ensure that the Ulstein S182 can operate autonomously in remote shallow water and offshore areas, the company says.
“Given the CAPEX target that we have set ourselves, we decided that speed will be a result of the design rather than a design driver as it is in most designs,” says Edwin van Leeuwen, Managing Director at Ulstein Design & Solutions B.V.
“Speed requirements often have a big impact on installed power, easily spiraling up vessel CAPEX.”
Furthermore, Ulstein has said it has developed a workhorse that is capable of shallow water DP operations, including beaching. Further describing the vessel, Ulstein says it features a large and strong open work deck suitable to accommodate up to 30 m ø carousel, large cargo hold below deck and ca 10,000 DWT capacity. A main offshore crane of up to 400 t can be located in the side of the vessel, while a passage way below main deck is created between aft casings and accommodation, a safety feature avoiding people having to cross the open work deck.
“As operational areas we mainly target South East Asia, Middle East, and Africa, but the vessel will of course also be capable to work in the North Sea, where we see a good market for cable lay operations,” the company has said.