The new deepwater intervention vessel, Skandi Aker, has been awarded the coveted international “Ship of the Year 2010” prize.
The vessel was delivered from STX Norway Offshore AS – Søviknes to the owners, DOFCON AS, on 7 January 2010. DOFCON AS is a subsidiary of DOF ASA, an international group of companies which owns and operates a modern fleet of offshore-/subsea vessels, and through its subsidiary DOF Subsea AS owns engineering capacity to service the subsea market.
The contract for the newbuilding was signed as far back as in August 2006 for delivery in the spring of 2009. During the construction process DOFCON AS and the operator Aker Oilfield Services AS (owned by Aker Solutions ASA) undertook major changes to the original vessel. Therefore, the hull and basic outfitting was not delivered from the STX Norway Offshore yard in Tulcea before 26 March 2009. During the outfitting at Søviknes, further changes took place.
These changes imply that the ship can singlehandedly replace oilrigs for several operations which previously were exclusively assigned to rigs. For example; instead of using a large oilrig accompanied by support vessel the oil companies can rather deploy a “SKANDI AKER” type vessel. This is a truly unique feature of this SHIP OF THE YEAR vessel.
The sheer size of the unit is quite impressive with 156,9 meters length overall, a width of 27,0 meters and a module handling tower that rises more than 60 meters above sea level. The ship can accommodate some 140 people and is capable of operating at depths up to 3.000 meters, while other existing well-intervention vessels are limited to about 800 meters. The vessel is also environmental-friendly, with focus on low fuel consumption and DNV Clean Design notation.
