Levingston Offshore to build World’s Largest Liftboat

The Levingston Corporation of Boerne, Texas and PaxOcean Engineering Zhoushan Co. of Singapore have signed a Letter of Intent to build what will be the world’s largest liftboat.  The liftboat will be a Levingston designed 415WC Jack-up, and will include an option for one additional similar vessel for an undisclosed contract value.

The Levingston 415WC Jack-up MOU (Mobile Offshore Unit), with 415 feet of legs, an open deck area of 18,300 square feet (1,700 square meters), a net deck load capacity of 1,654 tons (1,500 metric tonnes) and accommodations for 100 personnel including navigation crew, will be the world’s largest liftboat. This vessel follows in the footsteps of the Levingston 320E, the world’s current largest liftboat. Levingston has delivered three of a six-vessel contract based on the 320E design with the remaining deliveries scheduled to be completed June 2012. The 415WC vessel will have the fastest, high capacity Levingston-EBI 12-tooth pinion jacking system along with the Levingston-RAM Leg Encircling Crane with 300 metric tonne capacity. This vessel will be designed to work in harsh environments and with this design the accommodations may be increased to meet additional customer’s needs.

The Levingston 415WC Jack-up MOU shall be provided with the option of a modular workover/drilling facility (mounted on a cantilever structure) to support offshore workover operations. The cantilever shall be equipped with state-of-art workover/drilling equipment package, and hydraulically skidded out of the bow of the vessel. When the vessel is not required to be in workover operation mode, the cantilever structure shall be removed to onshore storage. Alternatively, modular workover/drilling equipment can be set on the platform using the 415WC’s crane if the customer does not use cantilever beams.

PaxOcean will build the vessels in their Zhoushan shipyard in the People’s Republic of China. Zhoushan Island is located about 17 nautical miles from Yangshan Port in Shanghai. The yard is composed of 173 acres with 36 acres in shop areas and has two of the world’s largest drydocks (No.1 dock: 400m x 106m x 13.7m, No.2 dock: 380m x 80m x 13.7m). The fabrication areas, dry dock facilities, overhead cranes with other yard features, provide the shipyard with the key features to build the Levingston 415WC.

Image courtesy Levingston Offshore

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