After having developed the concept and basic design for Heerema's new monohull vessel, Ulstein Group´s Dutch based design company, Ulstein Sea of Solutions (USOS), has now also been awarded the further engineering of the vessel with the selected shipyard, DSME of South Korea.
In February 2010, USOS was contracted by Heerema to design their new deepwater construction vessel, for which an LOI was signed between Heerema and DSME mid-July 2010. On August 24 the LOI was turned into a building contract with DSME for the design, construction, testing, commissioning and delivery of this impressive vessel, a record breaking time for development and award of such a vessel
"Designs for deepwater construction vessels are an important focus area for Ulstein Group, and we are very pleased that Heerema selected us for designing this state-of-the-art vessel", said Tore Ulstein, deputy CEO of Ulstein Group.
The self propelled DP3 Deepwater Construction Vessel is a customised version of the Ulstein SOC 5000 vessel design. The Heerema vessel features a revolving heavy lift capability of 4,000 tonnes, deepwater lowering equipment up to 3,500 metres and a pipelay tower for J-lay and Reel-lay operations via a moonpool.
The hull configuration is specially designed for fast transit speeds and optimum motion characteristics in operation. The vessel is DP3-class equipped with two 6500kW and four 3200kW thrusters allowing for a transit speed of 12-14 knots.
Following the contract award to DSME by Heerema, USOS signed a contract with DSME on September 13 for further vessel engineering and integration of the mission equipment designed by Huisman.
"The work will be executed by a dedicated project office in Vlaardingen where engineers from DSME and Ulstein Sea of Solutions work closely together. The central location of the Ulstein Sea of Solutions office, close to Heerema and Huisman, is important to have good communication and flow of information required to shorten the timeline in the early phase of the construction of such a vessel," said Van Leeuwen.