Semi-sub rig to sport new filterless ballast water management system

Norwegian offshore rig owner Island Drilling has decided to retrofit its semi-submersible drilling rig with Ecochlor’s EcoOne filterless ballast water management system (BWMS).

Ecochlor revealed on Sunday, 15 January 2023 that it had been contracted by Island Drilling to install its filterless, EcoOne ballast water management system on the Island Innovator semi-submersible rig. The EcoOne Container Unit will be fitted on board this rig in the second quarter of 2023 while the rig is carrying out a drilling project for Dana Petroleum off the United Kingdom coast.

Vidar Vik, Technical Section Leader at Island Drilling, remarked: “Our research in choosing a BWMS for the Island Innovator was a very difficult process because of the unique ballasting needs for offshore rigs. We were interested in the EcoOneContainer Unit because it was filterless, which allowed for a very simple installation, it is easy for our crew to use and it offered us the opportunity to use it on another rig instead of sitting idle until our next move.”

Requiring only power and water supplies, the EcoOne Container Unit will be placed on the deck of the Island Innovator semi-submersible rig, which has four independent ballast water systems, forward and aft in each pontoon. Ecochlor further elaborates that unidirectional 1” pipes will feed the disinfectant from the central treatment container to each of the four ballast systems.

Due to the small pipe diameter, they can use the port and starboard elevator shafts – two pipes per elevator. Once at the pontoon level, one pipe will lead to the forward and the other to the aft injection flange near the sea chest, simplifying the installation process, outlines Ecochlor.

Sören Scheid, Ecochlor Regional Business Development Manager for UK and Europe, commented: “Our EcoOne system can use gravity ballasting, which is a huge benefit for mobile offshore drilling units (MODUs). For stability reasons, semi-subs usually ballast via four sea chests located in the far corners of the rig.

“Any full-flow BWMS would require the installation of four separate units, which would cause some issues with the tight spacing on the pontoon. With the filterless EcoOne BWMS, we can serve up to four separate ballast sub-systems simultaneously utilizing one system.”

The 2012-built Island Innovator rig is a sixth-generation semi-submersible drilling, well intervention and completion unit of GM4000 WI enhanced design. This rig won a contract extension with Petrofac recently for work off Mauritania.

Once the rig completes this job, it will move to the UK for its assignment with Dana Petroleum. Upon the completion of this job, the rig is scheduled to embark on its assignment with Trident Energy to carry out a drilling campaign offshore Equatorial Guinea. This work is slated to start in September/October 2023.