Following nearly 25 years of experience with cable handling systems on seismic vessels, Odim has developed an offshore mooring and offloading concept for FPSOs and FSUs. The system components are installed on the poop deck for crude oil transfer from production ships to shuttle tankers, and with no swivel joint, the system has been designed for easy operation and low maintenance.
"The new equipment is very hose-friendly," says sales engineer Kjell Arne. "It can be remotely operated by radio control requiring only one person to manage the system, but with safety in mind we would recommend a two-man operation." Operations performed by the two-man team, located in a control cabin next to the hose reel, include mooring, transfer and return of hose, connection and disconnection, and maintenance.
The hose reel sits at the end of a 60-meter catwalk, pre-rigged with a hydraulic powerpack and cable drum which provides the electrical supply. "We have designed the hose reel to accommodate 120 meters of hose, which is standard in the North Sea," says Arne. "However, we are aware that future safety regulations may call for hose lengths to be extended to 250 meters." As the Odim system can easily be extended to accommodate 250-meter hose lengths, Arne believes the company will be well placed to take advantage of this requirement if it does come into force.
The system includes a 600-ton Hawser winch, together with a messenger line winch. The winch, messenger line and 5-ton service crane are all hydraulically powered. According to Arne, there has been a great deal of interest in the system: "We are taking the concept to Singapore, where there is already considerable interest and we have been in contact with Statoil. Having completed a model of the concept and all the calculations, we are confident of its performance."
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