Maersk Oil to use Ampelmann walk-to-work system (UK)

Ampelmann, a Dutch company supplying Motion Compensation Gangways (MCG) for offshore and marine industry, has secured a contract with Maersk Oil North Sea UK.

The oil company will use the Ampelmann A-Type system for a shutdown campaign in the UK sector of the central North Sea to extend the weather window and increase workability and efficiency.

Ampelmann claims that, during the Walk to Work campaign in 2014, Maersk Oil North Sea UK was able to increase efficiency with approximately 25% compared to  the 2013 W2W campaign by using the Ampelmann system.

This year, the Ampelmann A-type system will be mobilized onto the Island Crown vessel.

The system is capable of compensating actual heave motions up to 2.5 meters which, according to Ampelmann, ensures safe, efficient and reliable transfers of personnel to the FPSO Global Producer III. With these so called ship to ship transfers, a seventh DOF compensation is activated. An extra sensor is installed on the target vessel which transmits motion data to the Ampelmann system in a wireless mode. Due to the received data, the Ampelmann gangway is able to compensate for the target vessel’s motions.

Wiebe Emsbroek, Area Manager Europe at Ampelmann: “As the global leader in MCG’s, Ampelmann is extremely pleased to be the supplier for this maintenance project for one of the biggest offshore installation companies in the UK. We look forward to providing our technology, experience and knowledge of the industry to make this project successful”.