Yantai to build deepwater fallpipe vessel

Offshore staff

PAPENDRECHT, The Netherlands --Royal Boskalis Westminster has contracted Yantai Raffles Shipyard in China for a newbuild offshore fallpipe vessel.

The 21,500 ton (19,504 metric ton) vessel, due to be delivered in 2011, will be able to work in much greater water depths than existing ships in this sector, Boskalis says. The company currently has two similar ships in its fleet, theSandpiper and Seahorse, each with a rock placement capacity of 18,000 tons (16,329 metric tons).

Aside from this new $175-million order, Boskalis is investing $1.243 billion in various other vessels, including of four new dredging hopper ships.

11/15/2007