Liftboat

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The liftboat Kaitlyn Eymard was built in the US by Conrad Industries in 2002. Lift Boat Kaitlyn Eymard - panoramio.jpg
The liftboat Kaitlyn Eymard was built in the US by Conrad Industries in 2002.

A liftboat is a self-propelled, self-elevating vessel used in support of various offshore mineral exploration and production or offshore construction activities. A liftboat has a relatively large open deck to accommodate equipment and supplies, and the capability of raising its hull clear of the water on its own legs so as to provide a stable platform from which maintenance and construction work may be conducted.

Contents

For liftboats registered to the United States, structures and machinery are covered under Title 46 of the Code of Federal Regulations. [1] Liftboats are usually outfitted with at least one crane; marine cranes are usually designed to API specification 2C or the equivalent classification society guidelines.

Liftboats are commonly used to perform maintenance on oil and gas well platforms. They have increasingly been used in constructing offshore wind farms in the United States. [2] The liftboat usually moves on location on a side of the platform where no obstructions or pipelines are observed, lowers its legs and jacks up out of the water. Because the pads of the liftboat are sitting on a muddy, unstable seafloor, most liftboats practice a safety measure called a preload, where the boat jacks-up the absolute minimum to clear hull from the tips of the significant wave heights, [3] fills its holds with water for weight and allows the boat to settle in the mud for several hours before dumping the water and jacking up to work height.

If the mud of the seafloor gives way under the liftboat, it can fall into the water and put the lives of the crew in danger. A complete site survey prior to moving on location is an important safety measure to ensure that all seafloor features (including canholes, which are the depressions left by the legs of drilling rigs or liftboats, and also pipelines) are known before choosing a final location.

History

The first liftboat was designed in 1955 by brothers Lynn and Orin Dean in Violet, Louisiana. In the 1950s the Dean brothers owned a repair service for automobiles, marine, and farm equipment called Universal Repair Service, which is now known as EBI, Elevating Boats LLC. As of 2018, the company operates 30 liftboats that service the shallow water oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico from their liftboat dock in Houma, Louisiana. [4]

Liftboats were initially confined to the U.S. Gulf of Mexico to operate on oil and gas well platforms. However starting in the early 2000s, U.S. liftboats were contracted to work in international markets including Brazil, Nigeria, the United Kingdom and China. [5]

Examples

L/B Robert

Montco Offshore's MiNO Marine, LLC–designed L/B Robert has a working water depth of 270 feet (82 m), 15,400 square feet (1,430 m2) of deck area and a 500-ton crane. The legs are 335 feet long (102 m) and it has a main crane and three auxiliary cranes. The vessel uses electro-hydraulic jacking systems, and the cranes are all driven from the segregated machinery spaces. [6]

ORCA series of self-elevating platforms

The ORCA series of self-propelled, self-elevating platforms was designed by Bennett Offshore working in collaboration with the Offshore Technology Development group of Keppel Offshore & Marine. These SEPs range in size from small platforms designed for the Gulf of Mexico to large units up to 115 m in length, capable of installing offshore wind turbines and foundations exceeding 800 tonnes. ORCA platforms can be configured for construction support, light drilling, well intervention, well plug and abandonment, coiled tubing operations, wind farm installation, gas compression and accommodation. [7] The first ORCA 2500, customized for the Middle East and North Africa, was delivered to a Qatari rig operator in February 2016. [8] An ORCA 3500 is currently under construction by Keppel FELS for delivery in Q4 2017. [9]

SUDA 450-L3T

The naval architecture firm A. K. Suda, Ltd. designed a 450-foot (137.25m) truss-legged liftboat for Teras Offshore. When delivered in 2014, it was the world's largest liftboat. The molded steel hull dimensions are 60m x 54m x 6m, and it is capable of working in water depths up to 367 feet. It has two deck cranes, one leg encircling around the starboard jackcase, and the other a pedestal crane on the port side of the vessel. Its quarters can accommodate 250 people including crew. It was built by Triyards Marine, Saigon Shipyard in Vietnam. [10]

Accidents

Ram XVIII

On November 18, 2018, the Ram XVIII overturned at a location in the Gulf of Mexico about 15 miles (24 km) south-southeast of Grand Isle, Louisiana. Five crew members and 10 offshore workers abandoned ship and were rescued. Three personnel suffered minor injuries, and the accident released an estimated 1000 gallons of hydraulic oil into the Gulf waters. The boat was declared a total loss at an estimated cost of $1.14 million.

The Ram XVIII was a 215-foot liftboat, built in 2015 and owned by Aries Marine Corporation in Lafayette, Louisiana. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the probable cause of the accident was an industry failure of not providing liftboat operators with enough information about composition of the seafloor. The port leg of the liftboat became unstable, leading to collapse, but it remains unclear whether the sea floor washed away, the leg settled quickly in a "punch-through", or the edge of the nearest canhole collapsed. [11]

Kristin Faye

On September 8, 2019, the Kristin Faye liftboat overturned while servicing an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico about 18 miles (29 km) east of Venice, Louisiana. The vessel was outfitted with two telescoping boom cranes on its bow. One large-capacity crane was mounted to port and another sat on a pedestal to starboard. The liftboat began listing to port and capsized in about 35 feet of water after workers extended one of the cranes. NTSB report blamed the accident on inadequate preload procedures that failed to account for shifting and loading the crane.

Three crew members were evacuated and one was slightly injured during evacuation. The accident released about 120 gallons of diesel fuel into the Gulf water. The vessel was declared a total loss at a cost of $750,000. [12] Salvage divers reported that the port leg of the liftboat had penetrated about 40 feet (12m) into the sea floor in a punch through. [13]

Seacor Power

On April 13, 2021, the US Coast Guard responded to notifications of a distressed 234-foot (71.3m) commercial lift vessel 8 miles (13 km) south of Port Fourchon, Louisiana, and along with good Samaritan vessels, began rescue operations. The owner identified the liftboat as Seacor Power , belonging to the firm Seacor Marine, and under hire at the time of the accident by the oil and gas company Talos Energy to transport equipment to their oil platform. [14]

The ship was about 7 miles (11 km) into a voyage from Port Fourchon to an oil platform on the other side of Louisiana's Mississippi River delta. It was operated by Seacor crew members and had 9 service hands on board. The vessel capsized after an unnamed category 1 hurricane raised 70 to 80 mph (110 to 130 km/h) winds and rough seas. [ citation needed ] Six crew members were rescued on the same day from the water. Captain David Ledet, age 63, of Thibodaux, had remained in the wheelhouse calling "mayday" even though the vessel was in trouble; he stayed at his post and continued seeking help for his crew, and was later found deceased. [15] On April 16, the body of a second crew member was recovered 33 miles (53 km) from the capsized boat, leaving 11 people still missing. [16]

Nomenclature

Liftboats go by several names in the marine industry, such as:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oil platform</span> Offshore ocean structure with oil drilling and related facilities

An oil platform is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms will also have facilities to accommodate the workers, although it is also common to have a separate accommodation platform bridge linked to the production platform. Most commonly, oil platforms engage in activities on the continental shelf, though they can also be used in lakes, inshore waters, and inland seas. Depending on the circumstances, the platform may be fixed to the ocean floor, consist of an artificial island, or float. In some arrangements the main facility may have storage facilities for the processed oil. Remote subsea wells may also be connected to a platform by flow lines and by umbilical connections. These sub-sea facilities may include one or more subsea wells or manifold centres for multiple wells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Offshore construction</span> Installation of structures and facilities in a marine environment

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.

<i>Ocean Ranger</i> Offshore oil rig, sank in 1982

Ocean Ranger was a semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit that sank in Canadian waters on 15 February 1982. It was drilling an exploration well on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, 267 kilometres (166 mi) east of St. John's, Newfoundland, for Mobil Oil of Canada, Ltd. (MOCAN) with 84 crew members on board when it sank. There were no survivors.

Port Fourchon is Louisiana’s southernmost port, located on the southern tip of Lafourche Parish, on the Gulf of Mexico. It is a seaport, with significant petroleum industry traffic from offshore Gulf oil platforms and drilling rigs as well as the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port pipeline. Fourchon's primary service markets are domestic deepwater oil and gas exploration, drilling, and production in the Gulf. Port Fourchon currently services over 90% of the Gulf of Mexico's deepwater oil production. There are over 600 oil platforms within a 40-mile radius of Port Fourchon. This area furnishes 16 to 18 percent of the US oil supply.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tension-leg platform</span> Type of offshore platform used in production of oil or gas

A tension-leg platform (TLP) or extended tension leg platform (ETLP) is a vertically moored floating structure normally used for the offshore production of oil or gas, and is particularly suited for water depths greater than 300 metres and less than 1500 metres. Use of tension-leg platforms has also been proposed for offshore wind turbines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capsizing</span> Action where a vessel turns on to its side or is upside down

Capsizing or keeling over occurs when a boat or ship is rolled on its side or further by wave action, instability or wind force beyond the angle of positive static stability or it is upside down in the water. The act of recovering a vessel from a capsize is called righting. Capsize may result from broaching, knockdown, loss of stability due to cargo shifting or flooding, or in high speed boats, from turning too fast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louisiana Offshore Oil Port</span>

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) is a deepwater port in the Gulf of Mexico 29 kilometers off the coast of Louisiana near the town of Port Fourchon. LOOP provides tanker offloading and temporary storage services for crude oil transported on some of the largest tankers in the world. Most tankers offloading at LOOP are too large for U.S. inland ports. LOOP handles 13 percent of the nation's foreign oil, about 1.2 million barrels (190,000 m3) a day, and connects by pipeline to 50 percent of the U.S. refining capability.

Saipem 7000

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crane vessel</span> Ship with a crane specialized for lifting heavy loads

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.

Marine architecture is the design of architectural and engineering structures which support coastal design, near-shore and off-shore or deep-water planning for many projects such as shipyards, ship transport, coastal management or other marine and/or hydroscape activities. These structures include harbors, lighthouses, marinas, oil platforms, offshore drillings, accommodation platforms and offshore wind farms, floating engineering structures and building architectures or civil seascape developments. Floating structures in deep water may use suction caisson for anchoring.

Subsea technology involves fully submerged ocean equipment, operations, or applications, especially when some distance offshore, in deep ocean waters, or on the seabed. The term subsea is frequently used in connection with oceanography, marine or ocean engineering, ocean exploration, remotely operated vehicle (ROVs) autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), submarine communications or power cables, seafloor mineral mining, oil and gas, and offshore wind power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackup rig</span> Type of mobile platform

A jackup rig or a self-elevating unit is a type of mobile platform that consists of a buoyant hull fitted with a number of movable legs, capable of raising its hull over the surface of the sea. The buoyant hull enables transportation of the unit and all attached machinery to a desired location. Once on location the hull is raised to the required elevation above the sea surface supported by the sea bed. The legs of such units may be designed to penetrate the sea bed, may be fitted with enlarged sections or footings, or may be attached to a bottom mat. Generally jackup rigs are not self-propelled and rely on tugs or heavy lift ships for transportation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edison Chouest Offshore</span> Shipyard companies

Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO), which started as Edison Chouest Boat Rentals in 1960, is family of companies in the marine transportation business based in Cut Off, Louisiana. ECO owns and operates a fleet of platform supply vessels, Subsea Construction / IMR vessels, a Riserless Light Well Intervention vessel, Anchor handling tug supply vessels, Oil Spill Response Vessels, and Well Stimulation Vessels, as well as an independently owned fleet of Research Vessels and Ice Breakers.

Mr. Louie is a former self-elevating drilling barge converted into an oil platform. It was the first self-elevating drilling barge classed by the American Bureau of Shipping. As an oil platform, it operates at the Saltpond Oil Field, offshore Ghana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bennett Offshore</span>

Bennett Offshore, L.L.C., is an independent naval architecture, design and consulting firm founded in 1997 by William T. Bennett, Jr., to deliver engineering services to the offshore industry. Bennett headquarters are located in Houston, Texas, and the company has an engineering office in New Orleans, Louisiana. Bennett Offshore provides traditional naval architecture, structural, mechanical and electrical engineering as well as hydrodynamics and other marine- and offshore-related services. In addition, the firm is involved in design, modification, and construction supervision of marine vessels, liftboats and other offshore mobile drilling and production units. Bennett Offshore worked in collaboration with the Offshore Technology Development group of Keppel Offshore & Marine to design the ORCA series of self-propelled, self-elevating platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crew boat</span>

A crew boat, also called a crewboat, crew transfer vessel, fast support vessel,fast supply vessel or fast intervention supply vessel, is a vessel specialized in the transport of offshore support personnel, deck cargo, and below-deck cargo such as fuel and potable water to and from offshore installations such as oil platforms, drilling rigs, drill and dive ships or wind farms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wind turbine installation vessel</span>

A wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) is a vessel specifically designed for the installation of offshore wind turbines. There were 16 such vessels in 2020.

NOAAS <i>Ferrel</i> American hydrographic survey ship

NOAAS Ferrel was an American hydrographic survey ship that was in commission in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from 1970 to 2002. Prior to her NOAA career, she was in commission in the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1968 to 1970 as USC&GS Ferrel.

Ocean development refers to the establishing of human activities at sea and use of the ocean, as well as its governance.

The Seacor Power was a 234-foot (71 m), 265 Class liftboat, constructed in 2002, belonging to Seacor Marine and flagged in the United States. The ship was powered by two Caterpillar 3508B@1900hp engines.

References

  1. ↑ 46CFR90.10-20
  2. ↑ Suda, Ajay (2017-12-15). "Offshore wind farm installation vessels have come a long way, keep evolving | Wind Systems Magazine" . Retrieved 2024-02-15.
  3. ↑ Hercules Offshore Nigeria Limited; ISM Marine Circular 63 Rev. 2 ; HONL 100.02 Rev 45a - Jacking and Maneuvering
  4. ↑ "The Pioneers of Liftboats". www.ebi-inc.com. Elevating Boats LLC. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
  5. ↑ "Liftboats go international with ten-fold jump in business". Offshore. 2002-02-01. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
  6. ↑ "Offshore Liftboats". Montco, Inc. Archived from the original on December 31, 2014.
  7. ↑ Bennett Offshore self-elevating platforms. Archived April 10, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ "N-KOM delivers first liftboat in Qatar". Keppel Corporation Limited. February 15, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
  9. ↑ "Keppel secures second liftboat order at US$85 million". www.kepcorp.com. Keppel Corporation Limited. July 13, 2015. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
  10. ↑ "Suda completes world's largest liftboat, based on SUDA 450-L3T model". Offshore magazine. May 29, 2014. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  11. ↑ "NTSB releases report on 2018 Gulf liftboat accident". Workboat.com. November 12, 2019. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  12. ↑ "NTSB: Offshore Louisiana $750K Liftboat Loss Caused by Faulty Preload Procedure". Insurance Journal. 20 November 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  13. ↑ "Overturning of the Liftboat Kristin Faye" (PDF). NTSB. 4 November 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  14. ↑ "Coast Guard, good Samaritans rescue 6 people from capsized vessel 8 miles south of Port Fourchon, searching for more". US Coast Guard. April 14, 2021. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  15. ↑ Vincent, Mykal (April 15, 2021). "Captain of Seacor Power identified as body recovered by Coast Guard". WAFB 9. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  16. ↑ "Second body recovered 33 miles from Seacor Power site; divers yet to get inside vessel". WVUE. 16 April 2021. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
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