Successful naming and launch ceremony for SEVEN PACIFIC

IHC Merwede and Subsea 7 are pleased to announce that the SEVEN PACIFIC was successfully named and launched on Saturday 20 March 2010 at Krimpen aan den IJssel, The Netherlands. The ceremony was conducted at the IHC Merwede Offshore & Marine division’s shipyard by Ann Clarkson, the wife of BP’s Senior Vice President, E&P Projects Execution, David Clarkson.

The SEVEN PACIFIC is a state-of-the-art pipelaying and construction ice-class vessel, which is suitable for unrestricted operation worldwide. It is capable of installing flexible pipes and umbilicals in water up to 3,000 metres deep.
IHC Merwede Offshore & Marine was awarded the contract for the design and build of the SEVEN PACIFIC in April 2008. The construction work has since been carried out at the IHC Merwede Offshore & Marine division’s facilities at Krimpen aan den IJssel. The keel was laid on 15 July 2009 and the finished vessel is scheduled for delivery in the fourth quarter of this year.
This is the fourth vessel contracted by Subsea 7 to the IHC Merwede Offshore & Marine division, the others being: the SEVEN OCEANS (pipelaying); the SEVEN SEAS (pipelaying and construction); and the SEVEN ATLANTIC (dive support).

Main features
The vessels pipelaying equipment has a tension capacity of 260 tonnes and a 2,500-tonne storage capacity for flexible pipe on the underdeck carousels. It also has a built-in deepwater dual 3,000 metre-rated work-class ROV spread and a comprehensive survey system.
A large deck area of 1,700m2 has been incorporated into the SEVEN PACIFIC for equipment and reel storage. The ship has a 6.6kV integrated electric power generation system and is propelled by triple electric motor-driven azimuth thrusters with fixed pitch propellers in nozzles at the stern. One retractable azimuth thruster and two transverse thrusters have also been installed to the fore.

Vertical Lay System
Huisman Equipment designed and built the 260-tonne Vertical Lay System, twin underdeck carousels and the 250-tonne heave-compensated knuckle boom crane.