Offshore construction is the installation of structures and facilities in a marine environment, usually for the production and transmission of electricity, oil, gas and other resources. It is also called maritime engineering.
A floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons, and for the storage of oil. An FPSO vessel is designed to receive hydrocarbons produced by itself or from nearby platforms or subsea template, process them, and store oil until it can be offloaded onto a tanker or, less frequently, transported through a pipeline. FPSOs are preferred in frontier offshore regions as they are easy to install, and do not require a local pipeline infrastructure to export oil. FPSOs can be a conversion of an oil tanker or can be a vessel built specially for the application. A vessel used only to store oil is referred to as a floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel.
The Saipem 7000 is the world's third largest semi-submersible crane vessel, after the SSCV Sleipnir and the SSCV Thialf. It is owned by the oil and gas industry contractor Saipem S.p.A.
DCV Balder is a deepwater construction vessel (DCV) operated by Heerema Marine Contractors.
A crane vessel, crane ship, crane barge, or floating crane is a ship with a crane specialized in lifting heavy loads, typically exceeding 1,500 t for modern ships. The largest crane vessels are used for offshore construction.
Balticconnector is a bi-directional natural gas pipeline between Ingå, Finland and Paldiski, Estonia operated by Gasgrid Finland and Elering. It connects the Estonian and Finnish gas grids, and provides Finland with access to the Inčukalns underground gas storage facility in Latvia. In addition, the pipeline enables construction of the regional liquefied natural gas terminal.
Pioneering Spirit is a catamaran crane vessel owned by the Switzerland-based Allseas Group designed for the single-lift installation and removal of large oil and gas platforms and the installation of record-weight pipelines. The 382-metre-long (1,253 ft), 124-metre-wide (407 ft) vessel is the world's largest vessel by gross tonnage, and since September 2021 also the largest floating sheerleg in the world. It was built in South Korea by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in 2013 at a cost of €2.6 billion. It commenced offshore operations in August 2016.
Yme is an oil field in the Egersund basin area in the central part of the North Sea. It is located 160 kilometres (99 mi) northeast of the Ekofisk oil field. The water depth is 93 metres (305 ft). The field was discovered in 1987 and was developed by Statoil with production from 1996 to 2001. In 2001 low oil prices led to the abandonment of the field. After the production license was relinquished by Statoil, a new license group led by Talisman Energy was formed to redevelop the field. In 2007 Talisman was granted permission to redevelop the field. The redevelopment was unsuccessful and the newly installed Yme MOPU STOR was abandoned and decommissioned without having entered production. A new attempt called the Yme New Development was launched by the new operator Repsol, which involved reusing the subsea installations already in place. The Yme field began producing again in 2021, marking the first time that a previously abandoned Norwegian oil field has been restarted.
International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) is a leading international trade association for the marine contracting industry. It is a not for profit organisation with members representing the majority of worldwide marine contractors in the oil and gas and renewable energy industries.
Solitaire is a large deep-sea pipe laying ship. It was at the time of conversion the world's largest pipe-laying ship at 300 metres (984 ft) long and 96,000 tonnes. When fully operational she has a crew of 420, a pipe carrying capacity of 22,000 tonnes and a pipe lay speed of more than 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) a day. The ship is owned by the Allseas Group, a Dutch pipelaying and marine construction firm with their headquarters in Switzerland.
A pipelaying ship is a maritime vessel used in the construction of subsea infrastructure. It serves to connect oil production platforms with refineries on shore. To accomplish this goal a typical pipelaying vessel carries a heavy lift crane, used to install pumps and valves, and equipment to lay pipe between subsea structures.
Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) is a contractor headquartered in the Netherlands most notable for operation of three of the largest crane vessels in the offshore industry.
The Castoro Sei was a column stabilized semi-submersible pipelay vessel. She had an overall length of 152 metres (499 ft), a width of 70.5 metres (231 ft) and an operating draught of 7.8 to 15.5 metres.
EMAS is an offshore contractor and integrated offshore solutions provider catering to the oil and gas (O&G) industry on a global scale. It operates as a subsidiary of Ezra Holdings and has gained recognition within the industry. Established in 1992, the company is headquartered in Singapore and initially focused its operations in the maritime sector of the Asia Pacific region, primarily managing a fleet of vessels. In 2003, the company successfully listed its shares on the Singapore Exchange SGX, enhancing its market presence. EMAS also established fabrication facilities in Vietnam.
A submarine pipeline is a pipeline that is laid on the seabed or below it inside a trench. In some cases, the pipeline is mostly on-land but in places it crosses water expanses, such as small seas, straits and rivers. Submarine pipelines are used primarily to carry oil or gas, but transportation of water is also important. A distinction is sometimes made between a flowline and a pipeline. The former is an intrafield pipeline, in the sense that it is used to connect subsea wellheads, manifolds and the platform within a particular development field. The latter, sometimes referred to as an export pipeline, is used to bring the resource to shore. Sizeable pipeline construction projects need to take into account many factors, such as the offshore ecology, geohazards and environmental loading – they are often undertaken by multidisciplinary, international teams.
TurkStream is a natural gas pipeline running from Russia to Turkey. It starts from Russkaya compressor station near Anapa in Russia's Krasnodar Region, crossing the Black Sea to the receiving terminal at Kıyıköy.
TechnipFMC plc is a French-American, UK-domiciled global oil and gas company that provides services for the energy industry. The company was formed by the merger of FMC Technologies of the United States and Technip of France that was announced in 2016 and completed in 2017.
SSCV Sleipnir is a semi-submersible crane vessel (SSCV) owned and operated by Heerema Marine Contractors. It is named for Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse ridden by Odin in Norse mythology. The vessel is equipped with two revolving cranes built by Huisman Equipment B.V., each with a capacity of 10,000 t ; the main cranes can be operated in tandem to jointly lift 20,000 t. It was ordered in 2015 and built in Singapore by Sembcorp Marine. After its completion in 2019, SSCV Sleipnir succeeded Heerema's earlier SSCV Thialf as the largest crane vessel in the world.
Edward Heerema is a Dutch engineer, businessman and the sole owner of Allseas, a major offshore oil business company. Through Allseas, he is the owner of the largest ship in the world, the pipe-layer Pioneering Spirit.
The Akademik Cherskiy is a pipe-layer vessel formerly involved in the construction of the Nord Stream II pipeline in the Baltic Sea.
