A charter agreement between expanding subsea contractor DeepOcean and Maersk Supply Service has triggered an order for a Damen Offshore Carrier DOC 8500 - the second order for this new ship design from Damen Shipyards Group.
The DOC 8500 will extend DeepOcean’s capabilities in the larger cable laying end of the market, representing a new focus on interconnector projects, in addition to oil and gas sector and renewables work.
The vessel will be delivered from the Damen Galati yard in Romania. Owned and operated by Maersk Supply Service, the vessel will become the latest addition to the 60-plus strong Maersk offshore support vessel fleet.
Tony Inglis, DeepOcean UK Managing Director, says: “This next generation cable lay vessel in combination with our survey and trenching capabilities will enable us to bundle our services for customers in the offshore power cable and umbilical markets. The versatile new vessel will be well suited for installation and burial projects using its 7000-tonne carousel from land-fall to deepwater and also in remote geographical locations.
Remko Bouma of Damen Shipyards Bergum, who is overseeing vessel construction, describes the DOC 8500 as a “semi-customised, modular” design. For DeepOcean, the ship-to-ship rule compliant vessel has been configured to accommodate 90 personnel, mostly in single occupancy cabins.
“The DOC 8500 has been developed as a flexible platform for both transport and installation work offshore,” says Mr Bouma. “Its bow and slender hull optimise sea keeping in rough seas and suppress slamming. The ship will run on either MGO or HFO and has DP2 capabilities in line with offshore market preferences. Its high on-deck cable carrying capacity makes it particularly competitive as a cable layer, while the vessel has also been optimised for shallow water operations, coming complete with a seven-point mooring system and the ability to take the ground fully loaded.”
The 138m-long, 27.5m-breadth, DOC 8500 features 2200sq m of unobstructed deck of 20-tonne/sq m load capacity, with ro-ro capability. The 9300 dry weight vessel will have a top speed of 12 knots.
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