Swire Pacific Offshore celebrates the launch of its 8th D-Class vessel, Pacific Dragon
Shipowner and operator, Swire Pacific Offshore Operations (Pte) Ltd (SPO) celebrated the launch of its new D-Class vessel, Pacific Dragon on Good Friday, the company said in its press release.
The launch and naming ceremony of Pacific Dragon was held at close to midnight on 17 April at ST Marine shipyard. The event was graced by Lady Sponsor, Ms Camille Gribble and attended by more than 160 working partners, employees and family members of ST Marine and SPO. Ms Camille Gribble is the wife of the Finance Director of SPO, Mr Nigel Gribble. The launch of Pacific Dragon marked the completion of the eight vessel D-Class series of 240T bollard pull, flexible and environmentally-friendly anchor handling tug supply vessels.
“The D-Class vessels represent a significant investment for SPO, forming a central part of our fleet expansion, re-balance and renewal strategy to meet the growing demand for large, modern, high specification, deep water offshore support vessels. We are very pleased with their range of operational capabilities and safety and technical performance in serving the needs of our customers around the world,” says Managing Director of SPO, Mr Neil Glenn.
Vessels in the D-Class series delivered to date include Pacific Defiance (28 February 2013), Pacific Diligence (3 April 2013), Pacific Dolphin (15 August 2013), Pacific Dove (3 January 2014), Pacific Discovery (3 March 2014), Pacific Duchess (6 March 2014). Pacific Dispatch is scheduled to be delivered in mid June 2014. Pacific Dragon is the last of a series of six D-Class vessels that are built by ST Marine for SPO and will be delivered by the second half of this year. Please refer to Appendix A for the Specification Sheet of Pacific Dragon.
“ST Marine is pleased to be the builder of six of the eight highly sophisticated D-Class AHTS for Swire Pacific Offshore. The journey is a wonderful one for us and we look forward to a continued successful partnership with Swire on their growth story,” says President of ST Marine, Mr Ng Sing Chan.
The D-Class vessels are well-equipped with advanced technical capabilities to support the latest generation of semi-submersible rigs operating in harsh deep water environments. Built to clean-class SPS 2008 and ice notations, these Havyard-designed vessels are designed to be fuel-efficient, to reduce environmental impact in whichever roles they are deployed to perform and to enhance safety during demanding deck anchor handling operations. They possess large capacity 500 MT RRM Brattvagg winches, latest dynamic positioning technology, enhanced station keeping with independent drop down azimuth thrusters, recovery frame (ARF) and travelling cranes. The vessels also have ample cargo capacity and deck space for a wide range of other offshore applications.
Today, SPO owns and operates a diverse fleet of 85 offshore support vessels, including anchor handling tug supply vessels, platform supply vessels, ice-breaking supply vessels, anchor handling tugs, seismic survey vessels, wind-farm installation vessels, accommodation vessels and multi-purpose offshore vessels. SPO will have a fleet of 100 vessels by the end of 2015.