Ampelmann

Providing safe offshore access for Sonsub in the Adriatic Sea

Mounted on the MPSV Bourbon Pearl the Ampelmann has been providing access to the Annamaria A and B platforms in the Adriatic Sea from mid October '09 till mid January '10. For this job, which enhanced the commissioning of the two new gas platforms, the Bourbon Pearl was used for accommodating 60 crew. Again, the Ampelmann shows to be a very safe and cost effective alternative against the small crew boats that were going to be used instead to transfer crew from the Facility Platform to the Annamaria A and B platforms. Not only by saving transfer time, but also by increasing the weather window from Hs = 1,5m (for the crew boats) to Hs = 2,5m.

With only three mornings in three months not operating because of too large vessel motions due to extreme weather, the entire crew was transferred four times per day to and from the platforms. Each crew change of 60 crew took about 15 minutes.

Ampelmann with Dive Support Vessel Bourbon Pearl in operation

 

Most of the times, wind and waves came from the prevailing direction, enabling to land onto the same balcony every day (at around 13m above LAT). During the days that a different landing point was required, the Ampelmann operator picked a suitable new balcony and created a new landing area within 5 minutes.

To summarize the advantages of using the Ampelmann system on your accommodation vessel:

• Day rate of the accommodation vessel + Ampelmann are up to 50% lower than day rate of semi-sub or jack-up
• No installation time of accommodation vessel
• No travel downtime compared to small crew boats or helicopters
• Multiple landing areas in different sea states
• No or minor adaptation to structure for landing the Ampelmann
• Making offshore access as easy as crossing the street