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Excellent news GG and all the other LTH's. VOS Paradise was quite busy over the weekend with cargo operations alongside the rig. She is now back in Great Yarmouth, getting ready to bring the next batch of drilling related equipment offshore.
The VOS Paradise loaded more cargo in Great Yarmouth yesterday and is alongside the rig again since this morning. More project / drilling related equipment and consumables go up, equipment that is not needed anymore for the next phase is backloaded. And off course foodcontainers!! The guys offshore must eat and with a 24/7 operation in shifts of 12 hours on / 12 hours off, there are 4 cooked meals every day. Have a nice weekend.
The VOS Paradise (a large Platform Supply Vessel) had a long day and evening offloading cargo and consumables at the Noble Hans Deul. She departed site during the night and is now enroute to Great Yarmouth. I assume that all equipment needed to start drilling is now on board the JU rig. For all drilling related comments I gladly refer to GG as a much better expert source in that subject.
Have a nice day and I hope the upward SP continues today.
Good morning,
On site the VOS Paradise came alongside the Noble Hans Deul during the night to start cargo offloading operations. Weather on site is reasonable for the next days, some increase in wind and waves on Sunday. Spring has not yet arrived in the North Sea.
And yesterday a nice rise in the SP! Have a nice day!
Good morning, VOS Paradise has left Great Yarmouth half an hour ago, ETA Noble Hans Deul is early afternoon. Weather on site: still blowing 30 knots, waves 4 meter, but dropping quickly during the day to more workable cargo operations conditions. Have a nice day!
A last one before I sign off for the night: FOS Paradise just left the anchorage and is now in Great Yarmouth. I assume to load more cargo for the Noble Hans Deul. Tomorrow's weather offshore: waves dropping from 4 meter (not workable) to 2 meter Hs (workable) during the day and evening. Wind dropping from +30 knots (not workable) to 10 knots (nice for crane and helicopter ops.) The outlook for the rest of the week: reasonable; it is not summer yet, but not nearly as bad as yesterday and today. Good night and more to come tomorrow!
Hi GG, let's see what the next couple of days will bring. i am pretty confident that Noble Drilling & the IOG rep have a good plan to get this operation on the road and the logistics in line with the plans to start drilling asap!
Take care, stay safe!
The rig was "warm-stacked" in the Cromarty Firth for quite some time. During this period there was only a minimum crew on board to keep technical system running. And during a tow there is always a minimum marine crew on board. All the project guys, including drilling crews, are onshore. So it seems quite normal that the first days on a new location, after a warm-stacked period, is all about getting the rig in drilling-mode again, starting with crewing-up. Once everybody is in operational mode again, the rest, including loading drilling equipment , follows. By tomorrow there should be more activity.
Hi dusterinmong, there is very little activity near the rig today. Only the Stand-by Safety vessel on location, VOS Paradise is on the anchorage near Great Yarmouth and no supplyvessels on site yet to start loading the rig with drilling equipment.
There are off course a lot of things going on on the rig, probably a lot of helicopter movements to bring the drilling crew on board, but that is outside the public eye. I will keep an eye out to see when supply vessels are coming on site to offload cargo
And on the marine operations side: the JU rig Noble Hans Deul has arrived on the Elgood location this morning, legs on the seabed and the 3 tugs have been demobilized and are on their way home. There was a PSV (platform supply vessel) VOS PARADISE on location this morning with destination Noble Hans Deul, but she left the location without discharging at the rig, now bound for Great Yarmouth and I assume to pick up more / other cargo for the rig. At present there is only the Esvagt Champion, a stand-by safelty vessel. These vessels are always on site as a safety measure, preventing other vessels to enter the safety zone around the rig and assisting during operations where people are working over the side, during helicopter landing operations, etc.
The rig is only a couple of miles away from the Elgood location now, still making good speed. Weather on site: pretty good for jacking operations with a sharp increase in wind & waves during the evening. By then the rig should have the legs on the seabed. Happy Easter all!
The weather on site is pretty good for tonight and tomorrow AM, early PM. Waves will pick up sharply late PM on Sunday, but by then the rig should be jacked up for the pre-loading of the legs. (That is: once on location a JU rig will jack up with the hull just out of the water. All ballast tanks are then filled to get the right weight on all legs and then you wait a couple of hours. That is a safety procedure to ensure that there is no imminent risk for a punch through of one or more legs in soft soil)
GG, towing and marine operations: that is my thing . And then waiting for the next rigmove. LOL Thanks for the update, let's keep fingers crossed for a well excecuted drilling campaign. Been here long enough as a LTH to hope for some nice rewards!
Hi GG, once on site and jacked-up the boring period of drilling starts. Being a marine ops person I have limited experience in the drilling side : how long will it take to drill and test and complete this Elwood hole?
Hi GG and the rest. The latest marine forecast is: Sunday AM good conditions to get the rig on location. Sunday late PM the wind is picking up, waves will increase to > 2.0 meter Hs. Weather forecast along the route is good, so the present tow speed of 5 - 5.5 knots should maintained with an ETA on the Elgood location late Saturday PM / early Sunday AM. Happy Easter !
The tow is making pretty good speed (5.5 knots and more), all going well the rig could be on location late Saturday evening / early Sunday morning. And the weather forecast for Sunday looks good to get the rig on location and jacked-up!
Friday morning: Not much activity in the Cromarty Firth, NHDeul still jacked up, tugs on standby on or near location. And the weather window for jacking up on the Elgood location is still Sunday, from Monday onwards a couple of days with poor weather and high waves.
There is a short weather window in the Southern North Sea around Sunday next with Hs (Wave height )below 2 meters. After Sunday up again. Hs (Signficant wave height) of 2.0 and higher is on the limit for lowering the legs of most JU rigs.
Hi GG & Peakview, it does indeed not look like good rig-move weather this week. " good days ahead and then the wind & swell start to come from the North. Tugs are at anchor now just outside the Cromarty Firth. Let's wait & see. Cheers!
And in the meantime the tugs Bugsier 30 and Fairplay 27 have arrived in the Cromarty Firth and are alongside now to start the rigmove of the jack-up rig Noble Hans Deul