Ulstein, the Norwegian shipbuilding and ship design company, said it has introduced a construction vessel design suitable for work in shallow waters.
The main design driver of Ulstein S182, which is the name of the new design, was to develop a very capital expenditure friendly dynamically positioned (DP) vessel with good capabilities to support various offshore operations, including cable lay and offshore construction.
The vessel offers an unprecedented combination of deck area, accommodation, and station-keeping capability for a compact vessel. This results in a very cost-efficient platform capable of supporting a wide variety of operations, including cable laying, offshore construction, shallow water installation, dive support, rock installation, and salvage work.
“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,” said Edwin van Leeuwen, managing director at Ulstein Design & Solutions, part of the Ulstein group. “Speed requirements often have a big impact on installed power, easily spiraling up vessel capex.”
The design can operate in water depths as shallow as 4.5 m and has a cargo capacity of about 10,000 dwt. It can be fitted with a main crane of 400-tonne capacity. The design targets operators in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa in particular, Ulstein said.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
