Maersk Drilling tackles thruster downtime

The partnership will create a 25-year thruster maintenance strategy for Maersk’s three semi-submersible rigs and four drillships.

“Wärtsilä and Maersk Drilling are taking co-operation to a new level, working as one team to ensure that operations on Maersk’s drilling rigs can proceed without unnecessary interruptions,” said Tamara de Gruyter, Vice President, Propulsion System Services, Wärtsilä.

Reduced maintenance

By reducing the thruster exchange time, the deep-sea rigs and drillships will spend less time in sheltered waters for thruster maintenance.

The joint strategy defines the planning procedures for scheduled maintenance as well as thruster services and equipment exchange in emergency scenarios.

With an open exchange of information and knowledge, Wärtsilä and Maersk will be able to adopt a holistic view of the maintenance needs for a fleet of vessels over an extended time period and thus optimise logistics and cost efficiency.

Wärtsilä’s scope of supply to Maersk includes spare thrusters and long-term storage maintenance. Maersk Drilling semi-submersible rigs Maersk Developer, Maersk Discoverer and Maersk Deliverer are equipped with eight LMT-FS3501 thrusters each.

Four new spare thrusters will be delivered during 2018 and added to the four existing spare units. By having a full set of eight spare thrusters it is possible to reduce shutdown periods significantly by hot swopping all eight thrusters with the spare units.

This provides additional flexibility to planning shutdowns to ensure minimal impact on operations.