Thrustmaster of Texas, Inc. received a contract from Hyundai Heavy Industries for the supply and installation of multiple sets of 5MW azimuth thrusters for the next generation deep water drillships being built at Hyundai’s shipyard in Ulsan, Korea.
The vessels are of the Gusto P10,000 design and are capable of drilling in water depths of up to 10,000ft. Each vessel uses six underwater mountable thrusters for dynamic positioning per ABS DPS-3 specications. The units are manufactured at Thrustmaster’s ultra modern facilities in Houston, Texas, claimed by Thrustmaster to be the largest thruster factory in the world. The vessels will be owned and operated by Diamond Oshore, one of the world’s leading offshore drilling contractors.
Each thruster is driven by a 5,000 kW variable speed electric motor and can generate about 90 metric tons of open water thrust in any horizontal direction. With their 97 degree angle gears, the thruster wake is angled downward, away from the vessel bottom, substantially eliminating thrust losses due to hull interaction and thruster-to-thruster interaction. The thrusters are capable of holding the vessel on station during drilling operations in waters with up to 1.5 knots current, 20 feet wave height and 50 knots wind speed. The thrusters also serve as the sole means for main propulsion of the vessel. Thrustmaster of Texas, Inc. is a leading supplier of tunnel thrusters and azimuth thrusters in a range from 75 to 8,000 kW.
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Source: Thrustmasteroftexas, March 23, 2011; Image: Aker Drilling