Catamaran gantry crane for engineering-procurement-construction-installation contract

The objective of this article is to introduce a new piece of multi-purpose and cost-effective offshore installation equipment suitable for onshore fabrication work, shallow water oil and gas field development and wind turbine installation. Shallow water shall mean less than 100 m in this context. The equipment can also be used in the disused platform removal market, which will become a multi-billion dollars offshore business in the near future. The equipment has a special feature: it can be used to loadout a deck from the fabrication yard onto a material barge for towing to site, install the deck, then remove a disused deck and offload it from a material barge back to the yard for rework. With a simple modification, it can install wind turbine and minimal platform. Creating a sustainable business for the equipment is a key consideration. © 2010 The Institution of Engineers, Singapore.