Swire’s 8th D-Class AHTS Launched

Swire Pacific Offshore Operations (Pte) Ltd. (SPO) held launching and naming ceremony for its new D-Class vessel, the Pacific Dragon on Good Friday.

The launch of Pacific Dragon marked the completion of the eight vessel D-Class series of 240T bollard pull, flexible and environmentally-friendly anchor handling tug supply vessels.

“The D-Class vessels represent a significant investment for SPO, forming a central part of our fleet expansion, re-balance and renewal strategy to meet the growing demand for large, modern, high specification, deep water offshore support vessels. We are very pleased with their range of operational capabilities and safety and technical performance in serving the needs of our customers around the world,” says Managing Director of SPO, Mr Neil Glenn.

Vessels in the D-Class series delivered to date include Pacific Defiance (28 February 2013), Pacific Diligence (3 April 2013), Pacific Dolphin (15 August 2013), Pacific Dove (3 January 2014), Pacific Discovery (3 March 2014), Pacific Duchess (6 March 2014). Pacific Dispatch is scheduled to be delivered in mid June 2014.

Pacific Dragon is the last of a series of six D-Class vessels that are built by ST Marine for SPO and will be delivered by the second half of this year.

“ST Marine is pleased to be the builder of six of the eight highly sophisticated D-Class AHTS for Swire Pacific Offshore. The journey is a wonderful one for us and we look forward to a continued successful partnership with Swire on their growth story,” says President of ST Marine, Mr Ng Sing Chan.

The D-Class vessels are well-equipped with advanced technical capabilities to support the latest generation of semi-submersible rigs operating in harsh deep water environments.

Built to clean-class SPS 2008 and ice notations, these Havyard-designed vessels are designed to be fuel-efficient, to reduce environmental impact in whichever roles they are deployed to perform and to enhance safety during demanding deck anchor handling operations.

They possess large capacity 500 MT RRM Brattvagg winches, latest dynamic positioning technology, enhanced station keeping with independent drop down azimuth thrusters, recovery frame (ARF) and travelling cranes. The vessels also have ample cargo capacity and deck space for a wide range of other offshore applications.

By the end of 2015, SPO will have a fleet of 100 vessels.

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April 21, 2014