Hallins Subsea Vessel Drops Anchor in Australia to Undertake Significant Contract

Hallin Marine subsea operations vessel Carlisle has arrived in Australia to undertake a significant contract on the North West Shelf. Supporting air diving services on a major field development, the initial work is scheduled for 110 days with a further series of options to extend beyond that.

SOV Carlisle is a 76 metre long DP 2 subsea support vessel built in 2006. Equipped with a 50 tonne crane and accommodation for up to 126 people, the vessel has been deployed by Hallin in a wide and varied range of successful projects. These include ROV operations as well as saturation and air diving using Hallin’s in-house design diving systems. The Carlisle has also successfully acted as a flotel, accommodating personnel involved in the hook-up of an offshore facility in the harsh environment offshore Sakhalin Island. The vessel’s adaptability makes it ideally suited to construction support, IRM and even shutdown support work. Hallin has already positioned two workclass ROVs in Perth, and will also station mobile saturation and air diving systems in the country to support its vessel operations.

In addition to the Carlisle, Hallin is also preparing the SOV Windermere for deployment to Australia later this year. Launched mid-2010, the Windermere is designed and built to Hallin’s specification and optimised for construction support and IRM operations. Facilities onboard the 80 metre long vessel include a 15 man saturation diving system, two workclass ROVs, a 50 tonne/1500 metre rated crane, high-efficiency Voith Schneider diesel-electric propulsion and accommodation for up to 120 people.

Since its launch, the Windermere has worked on projects throughout SE Asia. It will now become Hallin’s core Australian asset, with a principal focus on saturation diving and ROV support.

“We knew from the start that Hallin’s business model would work in Australia,” comments Simon Hird, Hallin’s Country Manager for Australia. “We operate a very modern fleet of vessels, none of which is older than five years. We design and build our own dive systems at our manufacturing facility in Singapore. We also design and build our own workclass ROV systems, C-ROV, to complement our fleet of third-party-manufactured vehicles. This enables us to match each client’s needs instead of a client having to charter a larger vessel than is in fact required, simply to access a saturation diving capability.”