Keppel seals S$140M shipbuilding contracts

Keppel Singmarine, the specialised shipbuilding arm of Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd, has secured three newbuilding contracts amounting to about S$140 million.

The first contract was signed by Keppel Singmarine with Dutch dredging and marine contractor Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. for the construction of a 159-metre long rock dumping fall pipe vessel slated to be finished late 2011.

Rock dumping fall pipe vessels protect and stabilise cables and oil and gas pipelines on the seabed as they deposit large amounts of rocks in deep waters with great precision.

Keppel Singmarine is gearing up to build a vessel that will have a carrying capacity for 23,000 tonnes of rock, which will be installed with propulsion machinery and special rock handling equipment.

The equipment will be supplied by Boskalis to carry out precise rock depositing works at water depths of more than 1000 metres with Dynamic Positioning (DP-2) capabilities.

A flexible fall pipe with a Remotely Operated Vehicle will be installed on the vessel at the lower end for better positioning. As the vessel moves along track under dynamic control, the rocks will be lowered through the fall pipe at a controlled rate.

"Rock dumping fall pipe vessels are a good example of highly specialised ships that require detailed engineering customised to the owners' requirements. We are confident of delivering a quality vessel to Boskalis' expectations," said Mr. Hoe Eng Hock, Executive Director of Keppel Singmarine.

To date, the company has built more than 400 specialised ships of various designs and functions.

Mr. Theodorus L. Baartmans, member of the Board of Management of Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. added they are optimistic that Keppel Singmarine will be able to deliver a sophisticated vessel equipped with diesel electric drives and dynamic positioning capabilities.

In addition to Boskalis' vessel, Keppel Singmarine was also awarded two other tugboat contracts.

The first is for building a 65-tonne bollard pull twin-screw Azimuth Stern Drive (ASD) tugboat with FiFi1 notation for firefighting for Smit International, with which Keppel Singmarine has previously worked with.

The tugboat is based on the proprietary MTD 3265T design developed by Keppel’s in-house Marine Technology Development unit.

The second tugboat contract is for the construction of a 50-tonne bollard pull twin-screw ASD tugboat for an Indonesian customer, PT. Pelayaran Trans Parau Sorat.

The tugboats are scheduled for completion in the fourth and first quarter of 2010, respectively.