In February SPT Offshore finalised installation of 22 No Riser Anchor Suction Piles for the Chevron Frade project. SPT Offshore has designed the suction piles in-house. The suction piles were fabricated under SPT supervision in Brazil. For installation SPT Offshore mobilised its new ultra deep water suction pump/lifting tool, SAPS-003.
This pump is hydraulically operated by the ROV, omitting the need an umbilical. Since all the venting and installation equipment is located on the pump, a lot of costs have been saved on the suction piles itself. The suction pile installation only took four days per batch of 11 piles in 1,100m of water depth.
When picking up the second batch of suction piles from the quayside, the pump was used as a remotely operated lifting tool. This lead to considerable time savings and increased safety since no working at heights was needed.