Offshore staff
CONSTANTA, Romania -- Grup Servici Petroliere (GSP) has opened a new harborside facility at its offshore construction yard on the Black Sea coast.
The $10 million, 38,600 sq m (415,487 sq ft) facility in Constanta Sud – Agigea port includes a 372-m (1,220-ft) long quay. Other features are a 2,720 sq m (29,278 sq ft) multi-purpose workshop and general infrastructure, allowing the company to perform extended offshore pre-fabrication and construction work.
The workshop is equipped with two 20 + 5-ton (18 + 4.5-metric ton) gantries running on a range of 130 m (426 ft). The shipyards incorporate five Liebherr crawler cranes and advanced welding stations.
First offshore work is an EPIC contract, awarded by Turkish state company TPAO, for the second development phase of the Akcakoca gas field in the Turkish Black Sea. GSP is supplying one 1,600-ton (1,451-metric-ton) steel jacket and a 1,400-ton (1,270-metric ton) dual-deck topside.
Recently GSP completed upgrade work on its GSP Saturn jackup, which immediately left Constanta to perform a series of drilling contracts in the Turkish sector. The first assignment, for Toreador, is exploratory drilling on the Igneada field.
The rig was converted from a slot-type into a cantilever-type jackup with a 2,000-ton (1,814-metric ton) variable hull load, the process supervised by ABS.
According to GSP, the Saturn can now drill up to 27 wells on the same location, a productivity increase of almost 67%, thanks to its cantilever beam being extendable beyond the rig to reach a drilling envelope of 55 x 20 ft (180 x 65.6 ft). A slot-type rig can only drill nine wells on the same location.
GSP has also installed a Bottle neck-type dynamic derrick with improved features, designed by Euroned Engineering and assembled at the Upetrom – 1 Mai yard in Romania.
Other new features include 7,500 psi mud pumps, a 15,000 psi HP/HT choke manifold, upgraded mud and control systems, new Amclyde pedestal cranes, and a new AC power supply and distribution system which should incur much lower maintenance costs.
GSP will continue its upgrade and modernization program with its GBP Bigfoot 1 derrick/pipelay barge and its GSP Neptun shear-leg crane vessel, the new investments estimated at $100 million.
Finally, the company has just won two more contracts for offshore support services in the region. The supply vessel GSP Licorn will provide marine oilfield services and crew transportation to the GSP Prometeu, which is drilling the Kaliakra 2 well for Melrose Resources on the Bulgarian shelf.
The DP2, AHTS support vessel GSP Queen will perform similar duties for the GSP Saturn for the Igneada program.
07/06/2009
