Inocean Develops New Arctic Drillship Concept IN-ICE (Norway)

Inocean has developed an Arctic Drillship – based on the companies’ modern and effective INO-80 concept. The new unit has been named IN-ICE.

The ship is completely enclosed and winterized, is environmentally friendly, and has enhanced logistics/ storage facilities. The ice class is for a substantially extended drilling season for a large part of the Arctic – with a PC-4 ice class.

“This gives us the opportunity to keep a conventional bow for operations in rough open water wave conditions, as well as to implement a moderate stern for aft-way operations in managed ice,” says Jørgen Jorde, Project Manager for Inocean.

Optimized for avoiding ice into the moon pool

“We envisage the stern more optimized for avoiding ice into the moon pool than for ice breaking, but also because drilling operations in Arctic areas are expected to be conducted primarily in ”managed ice”. Positioning will be done through”Thruster Assisted Turret Mooring” in the shallow parts of the operational area, and by DP in the deeper parts,” says Jorde.

Environmental challenges

As there is a lack of experience with drilling operations in heavy ice conditions with a floating drilling unit, in addition to the limited qualified rescue- and oil collection concepts in ice, Inocean believes a heavy ice class (e.g. PC-1/2) will not come into use for some years yet.

“We are very aware of the environmental challenges related to Arctic Operations and all the requirements that will apply for activities in this area. This aspect has been crucial for the development of our IN-ICE concept,” says Jorde.