Harris Pye Completes Drillship Hull Repair
Harris Pye Engineering Group has completed the repair of the Pacific International Drilling West Africa’s (PIDWAL) drillship Pacific Bora which suffered damage to the starboard aft hull off the coast of Nigeria.
The Harris Pye team evaluated the repair, mobilized all necessary specialists and labour, steel, tools and equipment, and completed the task in less than two weeks of boarding the Pacific Bora.
The work was undertaken offshore Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.
“We studied the repair scope, and put together a method statement to perform the repair work while the rig is afloat to avoid any dry docking and other cofferdam and divers cost, in order to bring the PBA back to 100 percent operability in under two weeks,” said Chris David, chief technical officer.
“PIDWAL had put together a task risk assessment for trimming the rig by forward, to maintain the dented portion 2.1 meters above water to enable us to proceed with the repair. They also provided all tools and consumables for the repair works, including the overhanging/overboard scaffolding, so there were no delays due to customs holdups. The steel plate and rubbing bar for the repair were purchased by Harris Pye UK, and freight was handled by PIDWAL.”
The work undertaken by Harris Pye included: crop and removal of the damaged section of the shell plating, preparation of the edges for the installation of new plate, preparation of the new plate for installation, installation and welding of prefabricated sections of shell/transom plating, installation and welding of Ø60 half round bar, performing welding according to Class-approved WPS (ABS Class), performing NDT by client-arranged third party and in the end the application of touch-up paint.
