Fincantieri Unveils New Drillship Design

A model of the OVERDRILL design on display at OTC in Houston. Photo: gCaptain

Italy’s Fincantieri on Monday unveiled its new ultra-deepwater drillship design at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston as the world’s fifth largest shipbuilding group looks to expand its offerings to the growing offshore market.

The new design, called the “OVERDRILL”, was developed by Fincantieri in cooperation with Aker Solutions and will be able drill to an overall max depth of 50,000ft.

Fincantieri says that compared to other drillships of this category, the OVERDRILL design will feature an increased variable deck load capacity, reduced overall dimensions, and increased efficiency.

Commenting on the new design, Giuseppe Coronella, EVP of Fincantieri Offshore, said: “The offshore drilling market is driven, on the one hand, by demand for traditional standard systems and, on the other, by ultra-deepwater exploration demanding innovative solutions. With support from Aker Solutions, Fincantieri has produced a rig design that provides solutions to both these needs”.

The drilling package is designed to meet new requirement related to water depth and drilling length with upgraded capacities, such as increased well pressure (20k) and hook load (1500st).

Fincantieri’s push into the offshore segment follows the group’s January acquisition of Norway-based STX OSV (now called VARD Shipyard) from STX Europe.

Some other OVERDRILL design main characteristics include:

Size: Length of 208 m (682,4 ft), Breadth of 40 m (131,2 ft), Draft of 17,6 m (57,7 ft),
Power generation and Propulsion: 45,600 kW of total power installed, six azimuthal thrusters of 5,500kW
Enhanced Drilling Capabilities: outfitted to operate in water depth up to 12,000 ft with a total drilling depth up to 50,000 ft.
Higher Payload Capacity: 32,000 tons payload, almost 30% more than the current drillships market average.
Powerful Derrick: a dual derrick for enhanced operational capabilities, outfitted with a crown mounted compensator and an active heave compensation system. The maximum rated static hook loads are 1,650 sh.t on main rig and 1,300 sh.t. on the aux. rig.
Large Deck Areas: Abt. 32,300 ft2 (3,000 m2) of deck areas and 5,380 ft2 (500 m2) of Well Test Area.
Deck Cranes: designed to support up to 3 x knuckle boom cranes of 100 mt and 1 x knuckle boom crane active heave compensated of 165 mt, suitable for subsea completion works.
Enhanced lifting and setback capacities: Top drives: 1x Aker DDM 1500; 1x Aker DDM 1150. Drawwork: 1x Aker WIRTH GH 11000; 1x Aker WIRTH GH 9000. Riser Tensioner Capacity: 4560 kips. Setback capacity: 2,000 mt.
Well control equipment: designed for 20,000 psi; Deck space for two BOPs, 7 Rams, 20,000 psi; BOP overhead crane lifting capacity of 650 mt.
Christmas tree: recessed 150 mt Cart Skidding system to handle trees up to 13 mt high.
Riser Capacity: Riser Hold Capacity of 12.000ft, Riser joints length 90 ft.
Riser Handling System: Fincantieri Offshore and its partner Navalimpianti have developed and patented a fully automated riser handling system. This new riser handling system is innovative and fully automated through a simple and reliable technology. This system allows to handle the joints from inside the hull up to the riser feeding machine and vice versa, without any human intervention and without any hanging weight. The crew supervises the entire operation from the riser handling control room. The automation of the whole riser handling system simplifies the hold loading procedure, the joints identifications as well as the maintenance management, and it can be fully integrated in the Ships Management System.
Mud System: up to 6 x Aker Solutions Wirth Mud Pumps, 10.000psi, 2.200hp. Large mud tank ccapacity: 3.700 m3 (23.200bbl). The mud treatment system can be updated up to eight shakers Derrick Dual Pool 600 series.
Higher comfort for the crew: living quarters can accommodate up to 210 persons (63 single cabins, 74 double cabins). A crew-friendly environment designed with special attention to comfort, ergonomics and noise and vibration control, thanks to our experience in building some of the most comfortable and silent leisure vessels in the world (i.e. cruise ships and mega-yachts) as well as submarines and naval vessels.
Green Rig: equipped with a centralized drain treatment system; the hazardous fluids can be safely stored on board. In addition possible upgrade to a SCR system for the NOx reduction to meet the latest IMO rules entering into force in 2016 is available.
Safety and efficiency: the chosen drilling equipment represents the most advanced technology available today combining to a top end performance, also high safety during operation and proven reliability. The vessel ensures also an improved operational efficiency, thanks to modular design of the most critical drilling equipment. Finally OVERDRILL is characterized also by an additional built in redundancy which helps to simplify the spare-part management. The vessel has aft to forward internal protected escape ways and an additional helicopter parking area which allows safe helicopter operations in case of emergency.
Maintainability: a unique underwater mountable retractable thrusters allow easy maintenance from inside the vessel, with no canister needed and thus a dry inspection and maintenance without dry dock is possible.
Operability: improved operability of the vessel is possible thanks to the optimized hull shape, to the patented bulb-bow design, and to the DP3 Dynamic positioning system. The operation endurance is improved thanks to large Diesel Oil tanks capacity of 7,000m3 (44,000bbl), Fresh water tanks of 600m3 (3,750bbl), and Drill water tanks of 4.300m3 (27,000bbl).

Thor Arne HÃ¥verstad, Head of drilling technologies at Aker Solutions, said: “Fincantieri Offshore’s expertise in vessel design combined with Aker Solutions’ knowledge of drilling technologies created a very powerful partnership, which made it possible to create the OVERDRILL design.”