Semisubmersible heavy-lift barge used for novel dry-dock in Mexico

Dec. 13, 2004
A novel dry-docking operation began last month in Mexico, following the loading of the 11,220-tonne semisubmersible rig Mata Redonda on the main deck of the Zhong Ren 3 semisubmersible heavy lift barge (see photo).

A novel dry-docking operation began last month in Mexico, following the loading of the 11,220-tonne semisubmersible rig Mata Redonda on the main deck of the Zhong Ren 3 semisubmersible heavy lift barge (see photo).

The Rotterdam-based ocean towage and heavy transportation company Fairmount Marine BV describes the 50,000-dwt Zhong Ren 3, 196 m long and 46 m wide, as the world's largest semisubmersible barge, owned by Shanghai Salvage Co. The Zhong Ren 3 was converted from an oil tanker to a submersible barge in the COSTCO shipyard at Nantong in 2001-02.

Zhong Ren 3 was towed from Las Palmas, Canary Islands, to Mexico for the job by the 120-tonne bollard pull tug Hua An.
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The deck of the Zhong Ren 3 was prepared with 141 concrete cribbing blocks, each 1.12 m high. In late October, the Zhong Ren 3 was ballasted down to a depth of about 21 m, providing about 8.5 m clearance above the deck, allowing the rig to be floated over the deck.

The Zhong Ren 3 superbarge carries the Mata Redonda semisubmersible rig, adjacent to the Bosner yard in Tampico, Mexico (photo from Fairmount Marine BV).

The work was performed for the Mexican drilling contractor Industrial Perforadora de Campeche SA de CV. Following loading, Zhong Ren 3 was towed to moorings alongside the Bosnar yard, by the Hua An and four local harbor tugs.

Recent work

Zhong Ren 3's last assignment, completed in July, involved repositioning Transocean Inc.'s Trident IV-A jack up from Angola to Zadar, Croatia, using the 185-tonne bollard pull tug De Hong.

Over about 60 days in fourth-quarter 2003, using the same tug, the Zhong Ren 3 barge carried the 14,000 tonne, 180-m long Front Runner spar from Jebel Ali to Pascagoula, Miss., a total trip of 9,700 nautical miles through the Suez Canal, for McDermott International Inc.

Murphy Exploration & Production Co. commissioned the spar for Green Canyon Block 339 in the central Gulf of Mexico, to serve as a production hub for the Front Runner, Front Runner South, and Quatrain fields on Blocks 338 and 339 (OGJ, Sept. 29, 2003, p. 8).