Fairmount Tugs Bring FPSO Skarv Idun to Norwegian Sea

Fairmount Marine’s powerful tugs Fairmount Sherpa and Fairmount Summit have towed FPSO Skarv Idun to the field in the northern Norwegian Sea after it was completed and prepared in Norway. Both tugs had already performed the tow of FPSO Skarv Idun from Korea to Norway earlier this year. The FPSO was towed at a world record breaking time of 92 days, including stops, and at an average speed of 7 knots.

For the final stage, the positioning and mooring of the Skarv Idun, Fainrmount Sherpa and Fairmount Summit were charged with keeping the Skarv Idun in position for the mooring operations.

The Skarv Idun is a large floating production storage and offloading unit and will be used by BP to exploit the oil and gas fields Skarv and Idun, located just below the Arctic circle in the northern Norwegian Sea. The FPSO is 292 meters long, 50.6 meters wide, has a towing draught of 12.2 meters and has a deadweight of 128.000 ton. A crew between 65 and 100 was on board Skarv Idun during the passage for on the job training, running the vessel, surveillance and providing marine support to the tug crews.

Earlier this year Fairmount Sherpa and Fairmount Summit needed just 92 days for the long distance tow of about 15.300 nautical miles from Samsung Heavy Industries’ shipyard in Okpo, South Korea to Norway. The towage was executed under command of Fairmount’s lead tow master captain Bertus Glas and was completed with an average speed of 7.0 knots including stops. Fairmount Sherpa and Fairmount Summit have a combined bollard pull of over 400 tons.

Fairmount Marine is a marine contractor for ocean towage and heavy lift transportation, headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Fairmount’s fleet of tugs consists of five modern super tugs of 205 tons bollard pull each, especially designed for long distance towing.

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Source:Fairmount Marine , August 30, 2011;