Lankhorst Wins Largest Mooring Order for Aasta Hansteen Spar

Lankhorst Ropes has been awarded a contract by HHITECH (Hyundai Heavy Industries and Technip USA consortium) to supply the mooring lines for Statoil’s Aasta Hansteen Spar platform to be located in the Norwegian Sea.

It is the largest single order for deepwater mooring ropes, and believed to be the largest ever order in the global synthetic fibre rope industry.

Located in the Aasta Hansteen field, approximately 300 km west of Bodø, the Spar platform will be moored with 17 polyester mooring lines in groups of 6, 5, and 6 lines at a water depth of approximately 1300 m. Lankhorst Ropes is supplying 36 rope lengths totalling over 43,000 metres of Lankhorst’s Gama 98® polyester deepwater mooring rope with minimum breaking strength of 1905 T (4200 kips).

Integral with the rope construction is a cut resistant jacket (based on Dyneema® fibre) developed by Lankhorst Ropes to meet Statoil’s stringent requirements to minimise the potential damage of trawl wire impact.

The Gama 98 ropes will be manufactured at Lankhorst’s state-of-art factory, dedicated to the production of offshore mooring systems, in Viana do Castelo, Portugal. Delivery is scheduled for first quarter 2015.

Chris Johnson, sales director Lankhorst Ropes Offshore Division, said, “We are delighted to be working with Technip again to supply the mooring lines for Statoil’s Aasta Hansteen Spar platform. The contract is testimony to Lankhorst’s well-proven, high quality Gama 98® rope which has been supplied to three deepwater Spar platform facilities since 2008”.

Aasta Hansteen Spar Platform

The Aasta Hansteen Spar platform will be the first Spar in Norwegian waters, the first Spar concept chosen by Statoil and the largest ever built with a total hull length of 198 meters.

The Aasta Hansteen field is a green field development and will host tiebacks from the Aasta Hansteen, Haklang, and Snefrid South fields. Statoil serves as the operator, holding a 75% interest; OMV holds 15%; and ConocoPhillips 10% interest.

Press Release, January 23, 2014; Image: Statoil