Ultra Deep uses option to expand DSCV fleet

Singapore-based Ultra Deep Solutions has decided to exercise an option with China Merchants Heavy Industry for a new dive support construction vessel.

Ultra Deep Solutions said via social networks on Friday that the Chinese company would build a sister vessel of the Deep Matisse, currently being built and expected to be delivered in the 1Q 2019.

Sticking to its now tradition to name the vessels after painters, the new vessel will be named Kandinsky, after Wassily Kandinsky who was a Russian painter and art theorist credited with painting one of the first recognized purely abstract works. The vessel will be a DP3 DNV-GL ship with a 24-men saturation system with twin-bell and twin 24-men self-propelled hyperbaric lifeboats (SPHL).

The 145-meter-long, 27-meter-wide vessel will be fitted with a 400-tonne Huisman crane which can reach working depths of 5,200 msw. The Kandinsky will also have two 250 HP WROVs that can work in 4,000 msw.

The Ice C Class vessel will have 2,200 square meters of open deck space suitable for a well intervention tower and flex lay tower.

Currently, Ultra Deep Solutions is expecting four vessels named after artists, namely, the Van Gogh, Andy Warhol, and the Ultra Deep Matisse DSCVs will be delivered in 2Q 2018, 3Q 2018, and 1Q 2019, respectively. The only active DSCV is the Lichtenstein, named after American pop artist Roy Fox Lichtenstein.

Shel Hutton, CEO of Ultra Deep Solutions, said: “Exercising the option of the sister vessel fits into our future plans for long-term decommissioning. We see the industry in a 30-year cycle which will be removing many structures over this term. Our plans remain the same to build high-efficiency vessels at a competitive price. Technology will be a driving force over the next decade. Capturing the market in these area’s will be a key to our success.”

As for recent company news, Ultra Deep launched the Andy Warhol DCSV on Thursday and won contracts for the Van Gogh, the Picasso, and the Lichtenstein in December 2017.