Stolt Offshore Records High Lay Rate in GOM

Crediting the project team, crew dedication and new pipelay technology for the Gulf of Mexico, Stolt Offshore project manager William Dick announced a high lay-rate achievement on the Williams East Breaks large-diameter pipelay shelf project offshore Texas in the Gulf of Mexico. The shelf pipeline will gather gas production from the proposed deepwater Boomvang/Nansen spars for market delivery and processing. Dick advises that on June 28, “Derrick/lay barge 801” achieved its highest lay rate of 327 joints in a single day on 24-inch diameter pipe with .562-inch wall thickness. “There are not a lot of vessels worldwide—which lay large-diameter pipe—that can beat that achievement. A lot of client support, hard work, dedication and perseverance—in the face of tropical storm ‘Allison’—contributed to our ramping up to that level of speed and quality work,” said Dick. The “DLB 801”—recently mobilized to the Gulf from West Africa—began the pipelay project in late May, and after “Allison” moved out of the Gulf, quickly ramped up to more than 250 joints per day using Stolt’s Saturnax automatic welding system—a new technology for the Gulf of Mexico. For much of the vessel’s work from mid-June through July, the “DLB 801,” using an eight-point mooring spread, maintained a steady lay rate of 260 to 300 joints per day, says Dick. Brant LeBlanc, vice president of Rodrigue Consultants, Inc. and a project consultant to Williams on the East Breaks pipeline, said “Stolt has been very accommodating and responsive, leaving no surprises for the project execution. Importantly, the ‘801’ is a new barge to the Gulf, and Stolt’s introduction of her has been very impressive. The welding technology on board the ‘801’ helps to put our project in the forefront for efficiency and on-time delivery to the client.”