2010 Sep 09

Underwater Maintenance Work Carried Out on Drilling Vessels in Gulf of Mexico

 Recently Hydrex was asked to carry out a full inspection and remove all fouling from two drilling vessels in the Gulf of Mexico to reduce the weight and drag of the vessels and increase their available cargo capacity.

An inspection team and two cleaning teams, each consisting of 7 team members, were therefore mobilized from the Hydrex offices. All Hydrex offices are fully equipped and ready to mobilize immediately to carry out high quality and fast underwater cleaning operations or any other maintenance and repair work on offshore units and ships located in the Gulf of Mexico or any other location.

Hydrex had carried out repairs on other offshore units belonging to the same owner and he knew that the company could offer the required services without having to take the vessels to drydock. The scope of work consisted of a comprehensive UWILD inspection of both drilling vessels, an inspection of the weld seams in particular, replacement of anodes wherever needed, blanking all overboard lines in order to enable inspection from the inside and hull cleaning the underwater parts of the units. The Hydrex teams also assisted with the removal of one of the vessels’ thrusters so that they could be overhauled.

While a class surveyor was monitoring the team that was carrying out the inspection required by the class, an underwater cleaning team was working simultaneously to make sure that the operation would be finished within the available timeframe. For the same reason one of the teams was transferred to the second vessel to begin the second operation while the other teams finished the underwater cleaning work on the first unit.

All operations were performed with a new range of the Hydrex underwater cleaning units which is designed specifically for offshore operations and can remove all types of fouling from any type of offshore structure. This offers owners big savings in fuel when moving their unit from one location to another and also reduces drag and weight on the unit, an especially important factor for the owner of these two drilling vessels.

An all-embracing combination of single, twin and triple head cleaning machines was used. The twin head MC212 unit is designed for cleaning light, medium and heavy marine fouling from tubular pipes, bracings and legs of offshore oil and gas platforms, jetties, piles, intakes and ship hulls. The triple head MC312 (Typhoon) machine is easily adaptable to the shape of a ship or pontoon hull. Its heads self-adjust to the contours of the hull making complex areas far easier to clean.

While assisting these two vessels, the same customer asked Hydrex to perform another operation on one of its offshore platforms stationed in Gabon for maintenance work. Workers needed to access the platform on a daily basis. Therefore the owner wanted to have scaffolding installed and welded to the platform’s legs to provide a safe entrance for the workmen. Thanks to the close proximity of the Hydrex office in Port Gentil, we were able to install the scaffolding just days after the request came in.

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