Keppel building concrete heavy lifter

Keppel Offshore & Marine Limited (Keppel O&M) through its wholly owned subsidiary in Netherlands, Keppel Verolme BV, has secured a $185 million contract to build a floating heavy lifter for the decommissioning of offshore structures.

The contract caters for additional work on the vessel, which if awarded, may potentially increase the contract value by another $32 million.

This innovative first-in-the-world heavy lifter of its class was awarded by MPU Offshore Lift ASA (MPU), a subsidiary of the Norwegian design and development company MPU Enterprise AS.

Keppel Verolme will execute the marine outfitting works and build the accommodation block as well as fabricate and carry out steelwork and install equipment for lifting topsides and jackets. It will also lease its facilities for the construction of the concrete substructure by the owner?s appointed civil contractor. Delivery is slated for early 2009.

One of the world?s largest decommissioning projects is the Ekofisk project, which is located in the North Sea. Contracting work on this project has already started for the removal of more than 10 platforms which according to the plan shall be removed by 2013. Linssen commented, “Decommissioning in the North Sea is a very new market. In this segment of the offshore market, one of the challenges has been to come up with new lifting techniques which can perform the tasks quicker, safer and at less cost.”

Developed by MPU, the MPU (Multi Purpose Unit) Heavy Lifter distinguishes itself from other removal vessel designs by its use of concrete technology which gives the heavy lifter greater robustness and less motion on the sea. The other differentiating factors are the cost-effectiveness in the construction and operation of the platform, as well as the additional functionalities. The heavy lifter may also be used for installing topsides and jackets.

“For MPU this concludes a long period, 8 years, of conceptual development, model tank testing, design and verifications, hence we are now very pleased to have raised the necessary funding to enter into a building contract with Keppel Verolme.