Company Announcement - Committed teamwork, world-class workmanship and professionalism are key to the successful completion of a project. DCD Marine Cape Town has been commended by its client Unique Hydra for providing a quality service for its modification project on the vessel DSV Vinnice, owned by oil services company Petrolog. The project, which grew substantially in duration and complexity, has further cemented DCD Marine Cape Town’s reputation in the industry for its capacity to deliver efficient and innovative turnkey solutions in the upstream oil and gas market.
“Petrolog needed to source a dive support vessel and found an offshore support vessel in Shanghai which could be modified,” explains Alroy Kannemeyer, Project Manager at DCD Marine Cape Town. “They then approached Unique Hydra to supply all the dive support systems for the vessel.” Unique Hydra, who are manufacturers and suppliers of deep sea marine and commercial diving equipment to the oil and gas industry, approached DCD Marine Cape Town, as a reputable local shipyard, to fabricate the items with which to successfully modify the vessel into a DSV. “DCD Marine Cape Town conducted a vessel inspection, while it was still in China in order to price the work in accordance with the original scope of work packages”, says Kannemeyer.
The original scope of work consisted of seven WPs, however the end client noted the capabilities and expertise within DCD Marine Cape Town and their synergy with Unique Hydra. The opportunity was taken to expand the project to include future planned modifications and upgrades to the vessel, which lead to a total of thirty nine WPs. Accordingly, the project duration was extended from 56 days to 126 days.
“Scope of work included the fabrication of a ‘moon pool’ cassette (for the purpose of facilitating the lowering of the diving bell for submerging of divers); 300 tons of dive support equipment which was added to the mezzanine deck, which in turn was reinforced with stiffening and supports to accommodate the weight. In addition, the scope of work also included the installation of 32 off kelly tubes (total mass of 72 tons) under mezzanine deck which involved complex rigging activity,” says Kannemeyer.
In addition, he explains, new pipe lines were installed. These included the seawater cooling lines, sewage lines, fire deluge system, fresh water system (hot and cold) and hydraulic piping. Three off skids (ROV, generator and work basket) were also fabricated and installed; and the pedestal of the utility crane was extended 3.5m in height to accommodate the installation of the dive system equipment installed on the mezzanine deck.
Main sub-contracted works included electrical scopes and panelling removals, and 200m2 of Rockwool insulation (for soundproofing) was installed in the generator room. “Given the complexity of the rigging activities and the installation of the moon pool cassette, we were impressed that DCD Marine Cape Town was able to complete these stages safely and successfully. On testing of the piping systems, there were no failures by class, and we commend DCD Marine Cape Town for the quality of the workmanship overall – in particular with regards to the standard of welding,” says Mike Iles of Unique Hydra. He continues: “The commitment demonstrated by the DCD Marine Cape Town project team was seen in, for example, efficient change order management and a quick approvals process.”
“At DCD Marine Cape Town we make it our mission to deliver a world-class service based on the highest safety and quality standards. I believe the performance of our project management team and a quality output have amply demonstrated our capacity to meet and exceed our clients’ expectations. We look forward to future project work with Unique Hydra,” says Gerry Klos, Executive Director of the DCD Group. DCD Marine Cape Town was subsequently awarded a contract by Unique Hydra for work on the offshore supply ship, the Maniviki Rover.