In 2005, M/V Edda Fjord, a platform supply vessel of Østensjø Group, was converted to provide accommodation services offshore Nigeria for a total of 330 people. Therefore, it is considered the first flotel ship. It supported the Bonga FPSO during the onsite construction, hook-up and commissioning of the FPSO facility. Edda Fjord was connected to the FPSO by means of a gangway and took advantage of the dynamic positioning system onboard to maintain a precise and continuous position. In the following years, and as a consequence of the
excellent performance of Edda Fjord, several companies decided to build their own flotel ships.

The flotel ship offers the following advantages compared to a semi-submersible flotel: A flotel ship is considerably cheaper to build and operate than a semi-submersible. A ship has considerably lower costs in moving from one site to another, and moves much faster.

But flotel ships present also one important disadvantage: a semi-submersible is more stable in motions than a mono-hull (ship-shaped) unit and is therefore more suitable for harsh environments. The problem of roll movement can be minimized for a ship with the installation of active anti-rolling systems, such us active tank anti-roll stabilizers. But the heave movement, the main cause of seasickness, cannot be avoided in a ship.

Apart from semi-submersibles and ships, mono-hull barges have also been used for many years to providing extra accommodation for the offshore industries, also offering other possibilities such us heavy lifting or pipelaying. They are normally non self-propelled mono-hull vessels and represent a low cost alternative in benign/intermediate waters.

An advantage is:

• Cheaper than the other types: semi-submersible and flotel ships.

Disadvantages are:

• Not self propelled.
• It needs tugs for movement.
• Only suitable for benign and shallow waters, as they are not normally provided with dynamic positioning (DP) systems, and should be anchored.

However recently, there has been an increasing number of projects of self-propelled barges (at low speeds) with DP systems, which means that they are becoming the preferred solution for many marine contractors. In some cases, jack-up platforms are used as accommodation vessels, but these are limited to shallow waters of a few metres depth.

This is an except of the paper OFFSHORE AND COASTAL FLOATING HOTELS: FLOTELS by M Lamas and L Carral, of the University of Coruna, Spain. Click HERE to download the full document © 2011: The Royal Institution of Naval Architects.

According to Conn Fagan, DNV’s Business development manager for offshore gas projects, the FLNG segment is developing rapidly. “A number of FSRUs (floating storage and regasification unit) and SRVs (shuttle and regasification vessel) are currently in operation, and many more floating import gas terminals are now in different phases of development,” he says. “At the same time, the first LNG FPSOs (floating production, storage and offloading) are entering into detailed design phase, and we expect construction of these units to begin in the next two years.”

Mr Fagan says that while DNV’s previous Rules and guidance issued in 2007 were well received by the industry at the time, the rapid development of this segment required a fresh look. “We recognised a demand for an up-to-date, fully comprehensive overview of the many unique technical challenges faced by designers and yards in this segment, covering both design and construction,” he says. “We are confident this guidance will be a useful tool for the industry.”

Broad range of issues
DNV’s Offshore technical guidance on gas terminals will cover a broad range of issues, including classification and regulatory compliance, conversion of gas ships, structural design, sloshing assessment, fatigue assessment, corrosion issues, regasification and liquefaction plant, assessment of novel concepts and qualification of technology, among others.

Mr Fagan, who will present the Guidance at OTC in Houston this spring, says that the Offshore technical guidance (OTG-02), applies to different types of floating units, but is specifically directed towards floating ship-shaped designs. In addition, the issues generally discussed in the Guidance may be adapted to address related options such as LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) units, GTL (Gas-To-Liquids) units and CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) units.

“DNV has been fortunate to work closely with a number of major players active in the FLNG industry to resolve a broad range of technical, safety and reliability issues, says Mr Fagan. “This Guidance is grounded in our extensive experience in this segment.”

Source: DNV

Our favorite competitor in professional mariner news, Marine-Buzz.com, recently had an exceptional post on maritime technology used to launch rockets into space. 

Having seen ships being used as a Hospital, University, Museum, promoting fashion, its time now to see a ship being used as a Platform to launch satellites. Sea Launch is preparing to launch a Zenit-3SL rocket with a Thuraya-3 communication satellite shortly from a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean. To view live web telecast click here.

The Sea Launch is the world’s first ever commercial international project to develop and operate a sea-based space launch system. The main objective of this project is to launch satellites from a mobile sea-based launch platform.

The key advantages of the Sea Launch system over ground launch sites are as follows:

• Ability to launch directly from the equator thus reducing unit costs of their delivery to the target orbit.
• Ability to launch with any azimuth from open sea, thus making launches free of political risks.
• Compactness, no need to have a well-developed ground infrastructure and its associated social support (roads, power, hotels, schools, hospitals, etc.), which radically reduces the numbers of personnel participating in the work, and, therefore, the cost of operation.
• Ability to process spacecraft for launch on the US territory (Long Beach, CA), virtually in an “urban” environment.

Being the closest marine technology company to gCaptain HQ, Sea Launch is a company that interests us greatly… we only wish we had gotten to the story sooner!

You can find MarineBuzz’s exhaustive review of SeaLaunch technology including additional photos HERE.