First Bourbon GPA 696 design delivered
Bourbon’s GPA 696 IMR vessel – first of ten
The first of 10 inspection maintenance and repair (IMR) ships built to the GPA 696 design from Guido Perla & Associates (GPA) has recently been delivered to Bourbon Offshore.
GPA was responsible for the concept design, regulatory package, and final design for these vessels, which are being built at the Zhejiang Shipyard in China. The value of the order has been put by Bourbon at around €450 million.
The highly maneuverable DP-3 and FiFi-1 certified GPA 696 IMR vessels are equipped with three 1,686kW azimuthing drives, two 843kW tunnel bow thrusters, one 843kW drop-down azimuthing bow thruster delivered by Schottel and six 1,235kW Cummins generators, as well as one 1,235kW auxiliary generator and one 450kW emergency genset. The configuration of the environmentally friendly diesel-electric propulsion system, including two engine and two electrical rooms, creates full redundancy in accordance with DP3 requirements. GPA says that the diesel-electric propulsion system results in reduced maintenance cost and improved station-keeping at offshore installations, and significantly increases crewmember safety. Because of its design and standardisation, GPA believes its 696 IMR series can compete with more expensive, similar-sized vessels, reducing operational cost to the customer by up to 20%.
The deck equipment of the 100m vessels includes one 150t at 10m radius main crane, which can lower packages to a depth of 3,000m and one 40t at 9m radius deck crane. Both cranes, with built-in swell compensation systems, cover the entire 1,200m² deck surface to ensure handling and storage of packages over the entire area. The SOLAS-certified IMR vessels have significant below-deck cargo capacities, capable of carrying 380m³ of methanol, 2,541m³ ship‘s ballast, 1,080m³ fuel oil and 749m³ fresh water. The vessels are equipped with a helideck designed for a Super Puma Helicopter EC225.
The vessels have been designed to be able to adapt to different operational needs and can serve as a stimulation vessel, rescue vessel, hotel vessel or provide light intervention on wells while offering onboard meeting rooms, offices, lounges and comfortable cabins. The vessel design allows for the following configurations:
- ROV vessel: 2 ROVs can be used at the same time.
- Deck cargo: maximum deck cargo is 2,080t, with an equivalent 18,512m-t deadweight vertical moment.
- Hotel vessel: accommodation for 105 people on board under comfortable working conditions.
- Mini-FPSO vessel: Increased freight loading capacity with a storage capacity of 24,000 barrels of crude oil.
- Oil well intervention vessels: support of interventions on oil wells for measurement and cleaning.
One feature of these vessels is the ability to operate both cranes and both ROVs simultaneously over the complete operating envelope of the vessel without any restrictions. These vessels are certified to satisfy the current IMO deterministic and probabilistic damage stability requirements.
With these 10 GPA 696 IMR vessels, the number of GPA-designed 600, 200 and 100 series offshore vessels, including PSVs, AHTS and FSVs, already serving the industry or currently under construction has increased to over 140, reinforcing GPA’s claim to be a world-leading naval architect for the offshore industry.
Images for this article - click to enlarge
Unless otherwise stated, all images copyright © Mercator Media 2012. This does not exclude the owner's assertion of copyright over the material.
