Wärtsilä, Transocean Announce Maintenance Program

Wärtsilä North America signed a contract with Transocean for a Conditioned Based Maintenance (CBM) program. The contract covers three Transocean properties: the Deepwater Millennium and Deepwater Pathfinder drill ships and the Deepwater Nautilus semi-submergible drill rig. Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.

"CBM contracts have been useful in other industries as a way for operators and owners to extract the maximum value out of their maintenance dollars spent," said Steve O'Leary, Technical Field Support Manager for Transocean's North American region. "In this case, Transocean and Wärtsilä are partnering to take an 'intelligent maintenance' approach by evaluating the exact condition of individual engines on a real-time basis. By taking into account the actual operating conditions, rather than basing maintenance decisions on a set schedule, we expect to save $5 million over five years by changing parts intelligently and extracting maximum value from those parts."

Under the terms of the CBM contract, engine operating data is continuously transmitted from offshore rigs to Wärtsilä's analysis center in Finland. Wärtsilä provides monthly reports on maintenance needs, based on established guidelines and the specific operating conditions. Parts can be pre-ordered and stocked in advance, reducing rush delivery costs. For offshore rigs, helicopters are used to deliver personnel and parts as needed, in addition to an annual physical inspection.

Wärtsilä has existing CBM contracts on Wärtsilä Power Plants and ships at 60 installations globally, but the Transocean contract is the first for offshore rigs. "Wärtsilä is proud to be the first engine manufacturer in the world to provide a CBM contract to the offshore drilling industry," said Bill Malacrida, President of Wärtsilä North America. "This arrangement allows us to provide better service to the customer by partnering with them, giving us greater access to operational data and more responsibility as a support partner to keep the engines running properly."