Mission & Offshore Systems

Dynamic positioning (DP) system

A computer system that holds the ship at an exact position and heading with no anchors, continuously commanding the thrusters against wind, waves and current — the defining capability of offshore vessels.

Position reference systems (PRS)

The independent sensors feeding the DP computer its position — satellite receivers, acoustic beacons on the seabed, laser and radar references to nearby structures — several at once, so no single failure blinds the system.

Anchor-handling winch system

The immensely powerful winch of an anchor-handling vessel, used to deploy, recover and relocate the multi-tonne anchors and chains that moor drilling rigs.

Offshore crane (AHC)

A crane with active heave compensation (AHC): it senses the ship's motion and pays cable in and out automatically, so the load hangs still relative to the seabed even as the ship rides the swell.

Helideck & helideck systems

The helicopter landing deck and its support systems — perimeter lighting, firefighting foam, fuelling and communications — built and certified to aviation standards.

ROV control, tether-management and launch/recovery system

Everything around a work-class remotely operated vehicle (ROV): the pilot's control cabin, the tether management system that pays out its umbilical at depth, and the crane that launches and recovers it.

PSV dry-bulk cargo system

Pressurised tanks and compressed-air piping on a platform supply vessel that carry powdered cement and barite and blow them up to the rig through hoses.

PSV liquid mud, brine and special-products cargo system

The segregated tank systems of a supply vessel for drilling mud, brine and chemicals — many small parcels, each needing its own pumps, lines and careful cleaning between cargoes.

AHTS towing pins, shark jaws and stern-roller system

The deck machinery of an anchor-handler: hydraulic pins guide the wire, shark jaws grip and hold it under enormous tension, and the stern roller lets chain and anchors pass over the transom.

Motion-compensated walk-to-work gangway

A gangway whose hydraulics cancel the ship's motion in real time, so technicians walk safely from a moving vessel onto a fixed wind turbine — the system that makes 'walk to work' possible.

FSRU regasification and high-pressure send-out system

The plant that turns an LNG carrier hull into an import terminal: seawater-heated vaporizers convert the liquid back to gas and send it ashore at pipeline pressure.

FLNG gas treatment and liquefaction system

A complete gas processing and liquefaction plant on a floating hull — cleaning raw well gas and chilling it to LNG at sea, an onshore refinery's job done afloat.

Drilling derrick, drawworks, top-drive and pipe-handling system

The drilling machinery itself: the tower, the giant winch that raises and lowers the drill string, the motor that rotates it, and the automated equipment that assembles pipe joint by joint.

Drilling mud circulation, treatment and bulk-storage system

The system that pumps drilling mud down the well and back, cleans the rock cuttings out of it and stores the bulk materials — mud carries the cuttings out and, critically, holds the well pressure in.

BOP control, marine riser and riser-handling system

The blowout preventer (BOP) — the seabed valve stack that can seal the well in an emergency — with its control system, and the riser pipe connecting the well to the ship along with the gear that runs it.

FPSO process separation and crude-stabilization system

The processing plant of a floating production unit that splits the well stream into oil, gas and water and stabilises the crude so it can be stored safely in the hull tanks.

FPSO gas compression, treatment and flare system

The compressors and treatment that make produced gas usable — for export, reinjection or fuel — and the flare that burns gas safely when it has nowhere else to go.

Produced-water treatment and water-injection system

Equipment that cleans the water which comes up with the oil until it may be discharged or reinjected, and the high-pressure pumps that inject water to keep the reservoir producing.

Crude offloading, fiscal metering and tandem-loading system

The arrangement by which an FPSO transfers stored crude to a shuttle tanker moored behind it, with certified fiscal meters recording every barrel for the commercial account.

Turret / spread-mooring and swivel-transfer system

The permanent mooring of a floating production unit: either a turret the ship weathervanes around — with a swivel passing oil, gas and power across the rotation — or a spread of anchor lines holding a fixed heading.

Cable-lay tensioner / cable-engine system

The caterpillar-track machines that grip a submarine cable and pay it out at precisely controlled tension — too slack and it loops on the seabed, too tight and it is damaged.

Cable carousel / cable tank and handling system

The giant rotating turntable or circular tank storing thousands of tonnes of submarine cable in coils, with the guides and quadrants that route it to the lay equipment without kinking.

Pipelay firing-line, welding and NDT system

The production line inside a pipelay vessel where pipe joints are welded end to end, inspected by non-destructive testing (NDT) and coated, before the growing pipeline leaves the stern.

Pipelay tensioner, stinger and abandonment/recovery system

The machines that hold the suspended pipeline's weight as it curves to the seabed over the stinger ramp, plus the winch system that can lower the line to the bottom and pick it up again.

Saturation diving and life-support system

The pressurised living chambers and gas life-support plant in which saturation divers stay at working depth pressure for weeks, commuting to the seabed by diving bell.

Diving bell handling and hyperbaric rescue system

The launch system that lowers the pressurised diving bell to the worksite and back, and the hyperbaric lifeboat that can evacuate divers without ever dropping their pressure.

Dredge pump and drag-arm system

The heart of a hopper dredger: a trailing suction pipe with a draghead that vacuums sand and silt off the seabed, and the huge pump that lifts the mixture into the hopper.

Hopper loading, overflow and discharge system

The hopper tank arrangements that fill with dredged material, overflow excess water to increase the solid load, and discharge through bottom doors, by pump ashore, or by spraying ('rainbowing').

Dredging production and positioning-control system

The control system that steers the dredging process itself — draghead depth, pump output, track over the borrow area — turning dredging from digging into a measured production operation.

WTIV jacking, leg-handling and preload system

The jack-up system of a wind turbine installation vessel: giant legs lower to the seabed and lift the entire hull clear of the waves, creating a stable platform for crane work.

Heavy installation crane and pile-handling system

The very large crane of an installation vessel and the grippers and upending tools that handle monopiles and turbine components weighing more than a thousand tonnes.

Scientific winch, A-frame and sample-handling system

The winches and stern A-frame of a research vessel that lower instruments, nets and corers kilometres down on wire and bring the samples safely back aboard.

Hydrographic / multibeam survey system

Hull-mounted sonar that maps a wide swath of seabed in detail with every pass — the tool behind modern nautical charts and seabed surveys.

Seismic source and streamer-handling system

The equipment of a seismic vessel: air-gun arrays that send sound pulses into the seabed and kilometres-long towed streamer cables whose sensors record the echoes, imaging the geology below.

Ice navigation, winterization and de-icing system

The cold-climate outfit — heated equipment and passages, ice searchlights, de-icing of decks and instruments — that keeps a ship functional where spray freezes on contact.

CTV push-on fender and personnel-transfer system

The bow fender of a crew transfer vessel: the boat pushes firmly against the turbine ladder and holds itself there by thrust while technicians step across.

Cable burial / plough and trenching system

Towed ploughs or jetting machines that cut a trench and bury the submarine cable beneath the seabed, protecting it from anchors and fishing gear.

Cementing system

The high-pressure pumping unit that mixes and places cement around well casings, bonding the steel to the rock and sealing off the formations behind it.

Well-intervention / wireline / coiled-tubing package

The equipment for re-entering an existing well — lowering tools on wire or pushing continuous coiled tubing into the live well — to measure, repair or restore its production.

Fishing gear, trawl and net-handling system

The winches, net drums and gantries that shoot and haul trawls and handle the catch aboard — the working machinery that defines a fishing vessel.

Pilot-vessel transfer, fendering and boarding-support system

The heavy fendering and boarding arrangements of a pilot boat, built for coming hard alongside moving ships at sea so pilots can climb the ladder safely, day and night.

Search-and-rescue mission management, search-sensor and survivor-location system

The mission outfit of a rescue vessel: search radars, thermal cameras and direction finders to locate people in the water, and the command tools to run a search pattern.

Mission RHIB / interceptor-craft launch and recovery system

Davits, cranes or stern ramps that launch and recover a rigid-hull inflatable boat quickly — often while the mother ship is still moving — for boarding and rescue work.

Patrol surveillance, mission-command and secure-communications system

The sensors, command consoles and encrypted communications with which a patrol vessel watches its sea area and coordinates law-enforcement operations.

Oil tankers

LNG carriers

Fishing vessels, factory trawlers and live-fish carriers

Cruise and passenger ships

Ro-ro passenger ferries

PSV, AHTS, OSV/SOV and CTV

Cable, pipe, diving, subsea construction, WTIV and intervention vessels

Drillship, FPSO, FSO, FSU, FLNG and FSRU

Dredgers and hopper dredgers

Tugs, ERRV/standby, pilot and search-and-rescue craft

Research, hydrographic, seismic and icebreaking vessels

Large yachts and superyachts

Patrol and government service vessels