SPT Offshore - Suction Pile Foundations, Anchoring and Self Installing Platforms

SPT Offshore is an independent offshore contractor specialised in suction pile foundations and self installing platforms (SIPs) for the development of marginal oil and gas fields and offshore wind farms. Furthermore, SPT Offshore provides suction piles, suction pile clusters (SPC) and suction embedded anchors (SEA) for the mooring of floating units (FPSOs, MOPUs, buoys, FSUs, etc.), subsea structures and subsea pipelines. SPT Offshore is a subsidiary of the Royal Volker Wessels Stevin group, a Dutch group of contractors with a yearly turnover of €4.5bn (2009) and more than 17,000 employees working worldwide.

SPT Offshore has a staff of skilled and professional personnel from project managers and project engineers, geotechnical, structural and marine engineers and naval architects to experienced offshore installation crews. Furthermore, SPT Offshore operates its own suction pump spreads for the installation of suction piles and SEA Anchors on a rental or supply basis from shallow (5m) to deep water (3,000m). Through SPT Offshore's sister companies, we operate a fabrication yard (Volker Steel and Foundations) and marine base (Stemat) in Rotterdam, including a fleet of (DP2) vessels, crane barge, barges, tugs and piling equipment.

SPT Offshore's Quality and Safety Management systems has been certified to respectively ISO 9001:2000 standards and OHSAS 18000 standards by Lloyd's Register.

Self installing platform

SPT Offshore has developed four proprietary self installing platform (SIP) concepts. As offshore heavy lift crane barges and pile driving equipment are avoided, the SIPs offer significant cost reductions in comparison with the conventional heavy lift barge installed and piled platforms. The same as for installation, the SIPs are also easily removed and re-installed at other fields, which makes the SIPs re-usable. A perfect solution for marginal field development.

SPT Offshore has gained significant experience in the installation and relocation (for re-use) of various self installing platforms based on suction piles in the Dutch sector of the North Sea and in the Liverpool Bay area of the Irish Sea. Last September we successfully installed the 9,000t F3FA platform for Centrica in the Dutch sector of the North Sea.

Carbon Trust self-installing wind turbine

For the development of innovative foundations for the UK round 3 offshore wind farms, SPT Offshore has developed its self-installing wind turbine concept. The concept has some unique features:

• ONE piece foundation and turbine installation
• Suction pile foundation, hence no pile driving noise and environmental issues
• Low cost and flexible planning as no dependancy on HLVs and jack-ups
• Fast-track installation, hence quick return on investment

Suction embedded anchor (SEA)

The SEA Anchor is an innovative deepwater anchor suitable for up to 1,500mt mooring loads. The SEA Anchor is installed with a suction pile follower to push SEA Anchor to the required embedment depth. During retrieval of the suction pile follower the SEA shells open and form a strong anchor point for any type of mooring from full catenary (horizontal), semi-taut, full taut up to tension leg (vertical). The holding capacity of the SEA Anchor is independent of the load angle. The SEA anchor offers unique features:

• High efficiency weight over ultimate holding capacity ratio of 1:100
• 50% cheaper than suction anchors
• Small anchor hence limited space requirements on installation vessel

Suction pile cluster (SPC)

The suction pile cluster consists of three separate suction piles interconnected at top and bottom. Each suction pile has a separate suction opening. By adjusting the suction pressures for each opening, the suction pile cluster can be installed with a tolerance on verticality of less than 0.5°, whereas a single suction pile has a typical tolerance of 3°-5°. SPT Offshore has developed a specific pump unit for this application that uses state-of-the-art control software to reach this accuracy.

Suction pile foundation

SPT Offshore has a wide experience in the design, fabrication and installation of suction piles for the foundation of offshore platforms and subsea structures. SPT Offshore has designed and installed the suction pile foundations of various offshore platforms and structures in a wide range of soil conditions from soft to stiff clays, in loose to dense sands and in layered soils. This makes SPT Offshore the most experienced offshore contractor for this application.