Drydocking ops for Helix vessel wrap up in Gulf of Mexico

Norwegian offshore supply vessel owner Boa Offshore has completed the drydocking of one of Helix Energy Solutions’ well intervention semi-submersible vessels in the Gulf of Mexico.

BOA recently finished the drydocking operation for Helix’s Q4000 semisubmersible vessel in the Gulf of Mexico by providing its dual barge solution. This operation was performed with the firm’s Boa Barge 29 and Boa Barge 30.

The activities also entailed the company’s in-house engineering and design for link beams, cribbing, and guideposts. BOA highlights that it operated the barges in sync and oversaw the float-on/float-off operation in accordance with its procedures and manuals.

“BOA would like to thank Helix Energy Solutions Group for the award of the contract and for excellent collaboration,” underlines the company.

This comes after Helix’s Louisiana-based subsidiary, Helix Alliance, secured a full-field decommissioning contract in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico in May 2023. The company’s scope of work includes the plug and abandonment of 39 wells, 15 pipelines, and seven structures.

The 2002-built Q4000 DP3 semisubmersible vessel was designed for well intervention and construction in water depths up to 10,000 ft. It can be used for a wide variety of tasks, including subsea well intervention, field and well decommissioning, installation and recovery of subsea equipment, well testing and emergency well containment.

The vessel, which can accommodate 135 people, comes with a 600-ton multi-purpose tower capable of fulfilling derrick roles, a deepwater crane with lifting capacities of 360 mT, and a work crane rated at 160 mT.

The Q4000 also features a 38 ft x 20 ft moon pool, a 7-3/8” 10,000 psi 10,000’ rated Intervention Riser System (IRS) permanently onboard, a 10,000 ft heavy weather ROV system, and an overall deck capacity of more than 4,000 mT.