Bahamas drill ship repair

In order to prepare for the large scale contract, GBSL invested heavily in transforming its North Beach berth into a fully operational 28,750m2 offshore repair facility.

This meant dredging the adjacent area to an average water depth of 20m with four pits dredged at 24m depth to accommodate thruster work. Shore side, it needed to construct a fully enclosed and security controlled area comprising office facilities, designated crane areas and equipment lay down storage areas.

Graham Couser, SVP of GBSL, said: “In January 2014 GBSL was awarded the contract to lift a BOP stack onto the Stena Forth, this was successfully performed and thereafter discussions and negotiations commenced regarding the possibility of performing the rig’s five year classification renewal programme at Freeport, Bahamas.”

“We are delighted with the outcome and knowing the limited options available to operators such as Stena in this region, the success of this project is essential to the development of this market segment for the yard.”

One of the major work scopes of the project was the afloat removal and refit of four Rolls Royce Azimuth thrusters performed using a local diving company to release the units and barge mounted strain jack and shore side crane capable of lifting 900 tonnes.

The other main projects involved GBSL supporting National Oilwell Varco (NOV) with the removal, overhaul and replacement of the sheave clusters.

In addition, GBSL repaired hull indentations, prepared and painted the hull, replaced carbon and stainless steel pipe, performed accommodation refurbishments and completed watertight door replacements.