Portable Vertical Lay System

For their Drill Centre 1 (DC1) riser installation on the EnQuest Kraken field, TechnipFMC required an overside lay spread, as the rotation collars on the product could not pass through the vessel’s moonpool. The client's VLS vessels were unavailable and therefore the project team had to come up with a forward-thinking solution for this challenge.

Working closely with the client to understand other challenges with their existing fleet in tackling their upcoming campaigns, MDL designed and delivered the MDL PVLS - the market's first road-transportable vertical lay system, that can be quickly and efficiently mobilised on a vessel of choice, which required no deck reinforcements.

To further support TechnipFMC on the Kraken project, MDL added a Third-generation RDS to its equipment fleet to compliment the PVLS, forming a complete flex-lay spread. The time efficiencies achieved at the mobilisation, demobilisation and actual operations thanks to the unique MDL design and integration of the spread resulted in a saving of 11 vessel days on the project, compared to the client's traditional approach. MDL continued its support to TechnipFMC on 5 back-to-back campaigns the following year, as well as returning to Kraken to execute the installations of DC3 and DC4 risers.