Offshore staff

St. GALLEN, Switzerland — Offshore geotechnical data acquisition specialist Geoquip Marine has added the Geoquip Elena to its survey fleet.

The specialist deep-push cone penetration testing (CPT) vessel will help the company respond to demand from offshore windfarm developers in Europe and North America especially.

The 4,000-t, 91-m-long, 19-m broad ship was built at Vard Brattvaag, Norway, in 2002. It is currently being fitted with one of Geoquip’s 200-kN seabed CPT units, which can operate a range of seabed penetration test equipment.

Once on the seafloor, the CPT unit relays data to an operator onboard the vessel in real time to undergo processing. The 200-kN system provides a continuous profile of tip resistance, sleeve friction and pore water pressure, all of which can be used to determine shear strength in cohesive soils and the relative density of non-cohesive soils.

The rig can push to depths beyond 40 m and is therefore suited to gathering data for the construction of offshore windfarm foundations.

Geoquip Elena joins five other DP2 and four-point moored vessels in the company’s fleet.

08.03.2022