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| Name: | Saipem 7000 ex Micoperi 7000 |
| Operator: | Saipem |
| Ordered: | 1985 |
| Builder: | Fincantieri Monfalcone Yard |
| Laid down: | 1985 |
| Launched: | 1986 |
| Completed: | 1987 |
| In service: | 1988-to date |
| Status: | Operational |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Semi Submersible Crane Vessel |
| Displacement: | 172000mt (Heavy Lift) |
| Length: | 198 m (Overall) |
| Beam: | 87 m |
| Height: | 43. 5 m (Keel to Deck) |
| Draft: |
10. 5 m (Transit) 18. 0 m (Survival) 27. 5 m (Heavy Lift) |
| Installed power: | 70000 kW |
| Propulsion: | 12 No. Thrusters |
| Speed: | 9. 5 knots (18 km/h) |
| Crew: | Up to 700 persons |
Saipem 7000 is the world's second largest Crane vessel (2 x 7,000t), after the Thialf (2 x 7,100t). A crane vessel, crane ship or floating crane is a Ship that is specialized in lifting heavy loads The SSCV Thialf is a semi-submersible crane vessel. It was constructed in 1985 as DB-102 for McDermott by Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co The crane radius of the Saipem 7000 grants a lifting capability of 14000t at 42 meters while Thialf can lift 14200 at 31. 2 meters. It is owned by the oil and gas industry contractor Saipem S.p.A.
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Concept
The Saipem 7000, originally named the Micoperi 7000, was conceived in the early 1980s by its original owners Micoperi as a multipurpose offshore oil platform installation vessel that would be able to install very large oil production platform decks (known as integrated decks) as well as the decks' supporting structures (known as jackets) using its two very large fully revolving cranes. Saipem ( is an Italian oil and gas industry contractor It is a subsidiary of Italian energy company Eni, which owns approximately 43% of Saipem's shares It would also be able to support the offshore completion of the platform by providing hotel and workshop facilities for large construction crews. Saturation Diving facilities would support subsea connection work. The vessels size and semisubmersible form would allow it to operate in worse weather conditions than smaller and conventionally shaped vessels.
The huge cost of a vessel of this size would be offset by the cost and time savings made by the oil company as the large integrated decks could be completed, tested and commissioned onshore. Prior to the introduction of the large crane vessels offshore oil platforms were made up of 1000 - 2000 tonne modules which were lifted into place individually by smaller SSCV's or monohull crane vessels and then connected together offshore, tested and then commissioned, this often took over a year. Other savings in the installation of the jackets could also be made.
Original Specification
Heavy Lift
2 fully revolving cranes with 140 m long booms fitted with 4 hooks. Each crane is capable of lifting up to 7000 tonnes at 40 m lift radius using the main hook. The auxiliary hook capacities are 1st Auxiliary 2500 tonnes at 75 m and 2nd Auxiliary 900 tonne at 115 m. The whip hook has a capacity of 120 tonnes at 140 m. The 2nd Auxiliary hook can be deployed to a water depth of 450 m.
Each crane was fitted with 15,600 hp (11,630 kW) engines to power the boom and load hoists, 9 tugger lines and the crane slewing system. The cranes use 48 miles (77 km) of wire rope of various diameters.
Ballast System
The S7000 was fitted with two ballast systems: A conventional pumped system which could transfer up to 24,000 tonnes of water per hour using 4 pumps and a free flooding system. For information on Wikipedia project-related discussions see WikipediaVillage pump. The free flooding system used 2 m diameter valves to open certain compartments to the sea thus trimming or heeling the vessel. For other uses see Valve (disambiguation. For the electronic component see Thermionic valve. This allows the vessel to lift cargoes from barges much faster than if the just the crane hoists are used.
Power System
The vessel's main power is provided by 8 No. 12 Cylinder 8400 hp Diesel engines built by Grand Motori Trieste a former Fincantieri company. Diesel or Diesel fuel (ˈdiːzəl in general is any Fuel used in Diesel engines The most common is a specific fractional distillate of petroleum An engine is a mechanical device that produces some form of output from a given input Later Grandi Motori was purchased by the finnish Wartsila. Wärtsilä is a Finnish manufacturer of large ( Diesel) engines and Power plants The core business of Wärtsilä is marine diesel engines They provide up to 47,000 kW of electric power at 10,000V 60 Hz for propulsion and positioning. The watt (symbol W) is the SI derived unit of power, equal to one Joule of energy per Second. V is the twenty-second letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled vee or occasionally ve (viː The hertz (symbol Hz) is a measure of Frequency, informally defined as the number of events occurring per Second. Auxiliary power is provided by two No. 6 Cylinder 4,200 hp (3,130 kW) GMT Diesel engines. There is also an emergency generator.
Total power that can be supplied is 57,000 kW.
Mooring System
The vessel was supplied with 16 anchor lines, 4 at each corner. The lines are made up of 3350 m of 96 mm wire rope, 50 m of 92 mm Chain and a 40 tonne Norshore Mark 3 anchor. A chain is a series of connected links. This article is about the literal physical chain An anchor is an object often made out of metal that is used to attach a ship to the bottom of a body of water at a specific point The mooring system can be used in water depths of up to 450 m.
Thrusters
The vessel was fitted with 10 thrusters - 5 on each hull. A hull is the body of a Ship or Boat. It is a central concept in floating vessels as it provides the Buoyancy that keeps the vessel from sinking They are, per hull:
- 1 No. 2,500 kW Bow Thrusters in athwartship tunnels
- 2 No. 3,500 kW Azimuthing retractable thrusters under the hull
- 2 No. 4,500 kW Azimuthing thrusters at the stern - these are used when transiting
Dynamic Positioning System
The vessel was equipped with a Dynamic Positioning system which used either the thrusters or the mooring system or a combination of both, controlled by a number of computers, to hold the vessel in a predefined location. Dynamic positioning (DP is a computer controlled system to automatically maintain a Vessel 's position and heading by using her own propellers and thrusters
Platform Installation Equipment
- 2 No. Menck MHU 3000 Hydraulic Hammers - The largest in the world
- 2 No. Menck & Hambrock was a Hamburg -based German steam and diesel shovel builder Menck MHU 1000 Hydraulic Hammers
- Various Menck Steam Hammers and their associated boilers
- 16 No. 35 cm Diameter 60 m long Cable Laid Slings
- A Containerized 14 Man Saturation diving System which can be moved to any of the vessels 3 moon pools
Accommodation
The Accommodation designed for 800 people contains 30 triple cabins 335 double cabins 35 singles and 5 Suites. Saturation diving is a diving technique that allows divers to remain at great depth for long periods of time A moon pool is a feature of marine drilling platforms and Drillships some marine research and Underwater Exploration or research A cabin or berthing is an enclosed room generally on a Ship or an Aircraft. The accommodation also contains a large galley and mess rooms, a hospital, cinema and lounges. The galley is the compartment of a Ship, Submarine, Train or Aircraft where food is cooked and prepared MESS ( Multi Emulator Super System) is an Emulator for many game consoles and computer systems based on the MAME core
Construction
The vessel was designed by Gusto Engineering during 1984
The vessel was built between 1985 and 1987 by Fincantieri-Cantieri Navali Italiana S. p. A. at their Monfalcone yard, Trieste in northern Italy. Trieste (Trieste Slovene and Croatian: Trst; German: Triest) is a city and port in northeastern Italy very near to Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest The vessel was built in two halves in a long dry dock. A drydock is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform The halves were then floated out from the dry dock and mated. During the mating operation the halves were supported by temporary pontoons.
The hull mating was complete in early 1987 and the two cranes built by Officine Mecaniche Reggiane under subcontract to American Hoist & Derrick Company (Amhoist) were installed in sections by the Saipem crane vessel Castoro Otto in April of that year. The sea trials, which took 2 months, started in September and on the 15th of December the vessel was handed over to Micoperi.
The cost of the vessel was not released by Micoperi but it was estimated in the technical press as being up to 400 million US dollars
Early Projects
The vessels first work was for Petrobras the Brazilian state oil company. The dollar (often represented by the Dollar sign: "$" is the name of the official Currency in several countries dependencies and other Petrobras ( Bovespa: PETR3 / PETR4 ( NYSE: PBR / PBRA( Latibex: XPBR / XPBRA short for Petróleo Brasileiro S |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld The project consisted of the installation of 7 platforms in the Campos Basin. Campos Basin is a Petroleum rich area located offshore of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. During this project the S7000 was also involved in the fighting of a well fire on the Enchova Platform. The Micoperi 7000 then proceeded to the Gulf of Mexico where it installed the Jolliet Template for Conoco. The Gulf of Mexico ( Spanish: Golfo de México) is the ninth largest Body of water in the world Conoco Inc was an American oil company founded in 1875 as the Continental Oil and Transportation Company. In 1989 the Micoperi 7000 arrived in the North Sea for the first time where it completed several projects in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. The North Sea is a marginal, Epeiric sea of the Atlantic Ocean on the European Continental shelf. Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional These were the Gyda Platform for BP, the Togi Template for Norsk Hydro and the Veslefrikk platform for Statoil. BP plc, previously known as British Petroleum, is the third largest global Energy company, a multinational oil company (" Oil major Norsk Hydro ASA (,) is a Norwegian Aluminium and Renewable energy company headquartered in Oslo. Statoil ASA was a Norwegian Petroleum company established in 1972, now part of StatoilHydro.
Whilst the vessel remained busy, Micoperi were struggling financially as the low oil price prevalent in the late 80's curtailed oil company investment. In 1991 Micoperi were forced to sell a number of their major assets including the Micoperi 7000 to another Italian contractor Saipem. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Saipem ( is an Italian oil and gas industry contractor It is a subsidiary of Italian energy company Eni, which owns approximately 43% of Saipem's shares Saipem took over the running of the vessel though they retained the vessel crew and the shorebased engineering support. Saipem renamed the vessel the Saipem 7000.
The vessel continued to work, installing oil and gas production platforms, in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, off the Canadian east coast and the west coast of Africa throughout the nineties. It was also involved in the removal of one platform Esso Odin. Esso (SO is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies Odin (ˈoʊdɪn from Old Norse Óðinn) is considered the chief god in Norse paganism. During the late nineties Saipem planned an upgrade to the vessels DP system and installation of a J-Lay system.
1999 Vessel Re-Fit
During the winter of 1999-2000 the Saipem 7000 underwent a refit to enhance its positioning and power systems and add a J-lay system.
The power system was ugraded to provide up to 70,000 kW using 12 Diesel Generators. Diesel or Diesel fuel (ˈdiːzəl in general is any Fuel used in Diesel engines The most common is a specific fractional distillate of petroleum In Electricity generation, an electrical generator is a device that converts Mechanical energy to Electrical energy, generally using Electromagnetic To improve the vessel's resilience the generators are distributed between four separate engine rooms.
Two 5,500 kW retractable azimuthing thrusters were added, one below the forward part of each hull. The DP system control computers were also replaced.
The hull and deck and deck structures were modified to accept the Gusto designed J-lay tower and its support equipment. The J-lay tower can lay pipe from 4" to 32" diameter with a tension of up to 525 tonnes using the tensioners and up to 2,000 tonnes when using friction clamps. The deck can used to store up to 10,000 tonnes of pipe.
To allow space for the increased equipment some items from the original specification were removed: 2 anchor winches from the bow, all the moon pools were removed and the boilers used to provide steam for the steam hammers.
Recent Work
The Saipem 7000 has completed 3 J-Lay pipe projects Diana, Blue Stream and Ormen Lange but its main work continues to be heavy lift in the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Blue Stream is a major trans- Black Sea gas pipeline that carries Natural gas from Russia into Turkey. Ormen Lange is the largest Natural gas field in development on the Norwegian continental shelf. This includes both platform installation and removal and the addition of modules to existing platforms.
Lifting & Pipelay Records
The Saipem 7000 retains the world lifting record of 12150t for the Sabratha deck in the Mediterranean Sea. A local record for the Gulf of Mexico (Mexican area) was set with the 10,473t of the PB-KU-A2 deck. The Gulf of Mexico ( Spanish: Golfo de México) is the ninth largest Body of water in the world
The Saipem 7000 laid the 24" pipeline for the Blue Stream project between Russia and Turkey up to the record depth of 2,150 meters in the Black Sea. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches The Black Sea is an inland Sea bounded by southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Anatolian peninsula ( Turkey This was broken at the end of 2005 by the Balder which laid a pipeline in 2200 meters of water. The DCV Balder is a Deepwater Construction Vessel (DCV operated by Heerema.
References
Synder, Robert E. & McCabe, Charles R. , “Micoperi 7000:The world's largest SSCV goes to work”, Ocean Industry (no. July 1988)
Saipem S. p. A. , Saipem 7000 Brochure, Saipem S. p. A. , [[]].
External links
- "Saipem 7000" (official site)
- Seven images of the Saipem 7000 in action
- Saipem 7000 sets new lifting record for the Gulf of Mexico (March 9, 2007)
- Saipem during maintenance at Keppel Verolme, Netherlands
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