Marin Teknikk AS has signed a contract for design and engineering of a new Subsea Support & Construction vessel for Otto Candies LLC in Des Allemands, Louisiana, USA. The vessel will be built on the owner's private shipyard, Candies Shipbuilders. The ship is a new design from Marin Teknikk called MT6020, the company press release said.
The MT6020 design is an innovation from Marin Teknikk and is a continuation of the lessons learned from a series of MT6016 design, which has been built more than 20 times during the last 8 years. The new vessel has a length of 102 m and a width of 20.6 m, and will be equipped with a 150T crane and two ROVs (unmanned submarines) that can operate down to 3000m.
Within this agreement there is also an option for another slightly bigger vessel, a MT6022 design with a length of 108 m, beam of 22 m and arranged for 110 persons.
The vessel has accommodation for 90 people and is designed according to the latest rules in terms of stability, security, and emissions of pollutants to the environment. Worth mentioning is especially the SPS code, that among other things, includes the latest requirements for damage stability. With this legislation in place, the vessel can work in all areas of the world where there are currently operated exploration or production of oil and gas.
The new contract is a result of a determined effort towards the U.S. and especially against this company for several years, where the first contact was established almost 3 years ago. The company has seen that Marin Teknikk's ship design have proved positive both in the Gulf of Mexico and other waters which they operate offshore vessels.
The effort that 3 of the naval architecture firm ship design contributed by the oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, has helped to increase interest for the vessel.
The vessel is intended to operate in the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Mexico and must therefore be constructed in the United States.
"We are extremely pleased to sign this contract as it is the first for Marin Teknikk in USA. For us this is a breakthrough in a market that has historically been difficult for other than national players to operate in. It is a confirmation that Norwegian ship design has a very good reputation in the world, and we expect again this opens up the possibility of several agreements later. Several Norwegian equipment suppliers are actual for delivery to the project," the Company's statement said.
Marin Teknikk has recently hired 10 new engineers where the Company has taken 8 from abroad - all these have moved to Norway. Marin Teknikk consists of 54 employees in Norway and 11 engineers in a wholly owned subsidiary in Poland.
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