Provided - Keppel Offshore & Marine

Brilliant feats at BrasFELSSeveral recent milestones wereachieved at BrasFELS, KeppelOffshore & Marine’s (Keppel O&M)yard at Angra dos Reis, Brazil,bearing testament to the yard’sengineering capabilities and abilityto innovate amidst challenges.Successful undockingNoble Roger Eason, the seconddrillship upgrade projectawarded by Noble Corporationto BrasFELS, was successfullyundocked on 6 March 2013.With detailed planning andseamless coordination, theundocking operation wascompleted safely. With thesuccessful undocking, the drillshipproceeded to the final phase ofintegration.Reflecting the strong teamwork between Keppel O&M’s yards, work on Noble Roger Eason wascarried out by Keppel FELS in Singapore and BrasFELS in Brazilexisting piping, deck steel platesand stiffeners, as well as columnblasting and painting.The scope of works for theupgrading project includes thefabrication and integration of thenew port and starboard sponsonblocks, a 36-men living quarterand a new bow thruster module.After fabricating these new blocksand modules, the vessel will thenbe lengthened by removing theold stern and replacing it with anew one. This process is known as“jumboisation”.Quest for moreSeparately, BrasFELS was awardeda contract by Diamond OffshoreNetherlands B.V. (DiamondOffshore) to upgrade and repairthe semisubmersible (semi) rig,Ocean Quest. The semi arrived atBrasFELS yard on 5 January 2013,and remained at the yard foraround three months. The scopeof work included the renewal ofBrasFELS also integrated newowner-furnished living quartersaboard Ocean Quest, by lifting themodule onto the vessel.The lifting of the living quarters,which weighed a massive 240metric tonnes, was a challengingtask.Undeterred, BrasFELS came upwith a good solution. It transferredthe weight from the floatingcrane to strand jacks – mechanicaljacks capable of lifting veryheavy weights – to lift the livingquarters onto Ocean Quest. Withthis innovative workaround, theplanning and execution of thelifting operation – including thedesign and fabrication of thestrand jack foundation – wascompleted safely and smoothlywithin a compressed time frame of10 days.Despite the complex task of lifting the 240metric tonne living quarters onto the semiOcean Quest, the BrasFELS team was able tothink of an innovative solution and completethe lifting operation in just 10 daysMr Ryan Matre, Project Manager atDiamond Offshore said, “Despitethe challenge of lifting suchheavy loads, the entire liftingoperation went very smoothly. Wethank BrasFELS for planning andexecuting the operation withina condensed time frame and fortheir innovative solutions.”Works on the semi have completedand it departed from BrasFELS on17 April 2013.OffshoreMarine March – April 20137