Remontowa Turns Oil & Gas OSV to Offshore Wind Vessel

An 83m long, multipurpose offshore support vessel (OSV) / anchor handling tug supply (AHTS) Normand Draupne, has undergone conversion and upgrade at Remontowa Shiprepair Yard SA and is now capable of working in the offshore wind industry.

The vessel has arrived at Remontowa still in its old livery of Norwegian offshore support fleet operators – Solstad Offshore. Now the ship is operated by Belgian owner G-tec SA, which specializes in providing geotechnical engineering services, as well as marine geophysical surveys and marine environmental surveys. In particular, the company’s services are targeted to customers active in dredging, offshore renewable energy, ports & coastal development, infrastructure & civil engineering, pipelines & cables, and mining & quarries.

Normand Draupne arrived at Remontowa SA in March, 2015. Extensive range of works has been ordered, including repair job and conversion resulting in upgrading and widening the ship’s capabilities. The upgrade mainly meant installation of new crucial equipment on deck.

After completion of works at Remontowa, the ship has become a drill ship. Not a typical oil and gas exploration drill ship though, but a geological survey and coring / sampling one.

Current Belgian owner expects employing the ship mainly in offshore wind sector. As such, the ship was first presented during EWEA Offshore event held in Copenhagen in March 2015.

Among the tasks entrusted to the ship will be the surveying and preparing the seabed for installations of offshore wind farms.

After the conversion and upgrade the Multi-Purpose Drilling Vessel is capable of performing the following tasks and works:

• offshore geotechnical site investigation works
• offshore drilling works
• ROV inspection works
• UXO (unexploded ordnance) clearance works
• offshore support
• anchor handling and towage
• grouting supply

Ex Normand Draupne has been renamed and is now called Omalius.