Swivel Stacks

At places where it is difficult or impossible to install a drilling platform on ground of weather or costs the usage of a FSPO (Floating Production Storage & Offloading vessel) is a good alternative.

These vessels transport the raw oil via a pipeline to the surface for temporary storage on the FSPO whereupon a tanker transports the oil to the shore. A very important part of this kind of ship is the swivel. It creates the link between the pipeline to the oil well on the seabed and the FSPO on the surface. The swivel turns with bearings in a so-called turret and ensures that the ship can move with the waves and flow without damaging the pipes beneath the ship.

At IHC Fabrication the parts of the swivel were fabricated, assembled and tested. For this particular ship, several swivel units had to be fabricated and stacked. The whole construction is being tested extensively to make sure that everything fits perfectly. After approval the swivel stack could be transported to the FSPO where it replaced the old swivel stack.