According to Santa Fe Drilling Co., the living quarters on its new mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) Galaxy I are designed with hotel standards.
Santa Fe believes personnel productivity will be increased by providing a more relaxing off-duty environment. The rig quarters were designed by architects and interior designers with a bias toward comfort, says Santa Fe.
RIG DESIGN
The Galaxy I MODU jack up will be employed in three modes:
- Stand-alone drilling
- Production drilling cantilevered over a platform
- Tender assist operations.
This rig can support more deck load and has longer leg length than any other jack up, its owners say. The unit was designed by Friede & Goldman Ltd. of New Orleans for drilling in the harsh environment of the central North Sea, on a year-round basis, in water depths up to 310 ft and seasonally in water depths up to 400 ft.
The rig will be capable of drilling to 30,000 ft and handling surface pressures up to 15,000 psi.
QUARTERS DESIGN
Peter J. Zweig Architects in Houston designed the rig quarters. A goal was to achieve the conveniences of a hotel and the durability of an industrial work place.
The rig crew members will work 12-hr tours on 28-day shifts; thus, it was necessary to consider comfort level as well as personnel flow to reduce the stress of close living conditions. Through the use of colors, original artwork, lighting, patterns, and certain structural elements, workers will feel more at home.
The quarters on the rig are six stories tall: one deck below and five decks above the main deck. All quarters cabins are placed on selected "sleeping" decks. The active rooms, including galley, mess, recreation, training, and change rooms, are located on the lower decks. Offices are not mixed among the general cabin areas.
The overall floor plans are configured to minimize traffic and noise around the sleeping areas. No access is required by the staff to, through, or past the cabins during the individual's sleeping hours.
The quarters are built with noise abatement materials including noise-reducing panels in the ceilings and walls, fixed insulation, and sound-deadened ventilation systems. Carpeting and below-deck sound insulation prevent much noise from traveling between floors. These systems keep the noise level below 40-50 db in the living areas.
Throughout the living quarters, high-quality carpets are installed. The carpet used on Galaxy I is durable, stain proof, and noncombustible.
To make the interior more aesthetic, screws and rivets were systematically eliminated from the walls. Screws and rivets often become eyesores because they detract from the clean lines, smooth corners, and finished appearances along the walls.
The basic color scheme throughout the interior is a combination of beiges, teals, and greens with various accents. The choice of colors is significant because colors such as teal tend to mask wear. The interior walls are specially coated to reduce maintenance. Visually, a common theme flows from below deck all the way up to the control rooms. The attractive designs with a range of colors are thought to encourage the crew to take pride in their surroundings, thus taking better care of the rig.
Cabin lighting is built into the ceiling as continuous panels to provide more head room. In the stairwells the handrails and exits are illuminated with safety lights. The open areas, however, are furnished with free lights and light fixtures (sconces) to make the rooms more attractive.
The rig will use a closed loop air conditioning system with individual controls on each floor. Areas of high traffic, such as the control rooms, can be regulated independently of the sleeping quarters.
STATEROOMS
From prior experience operating 30 marine units, Santa Fe Drilling's evaluation of rig personnel requirements determined optimum crew size and rig layout, The survey analyzed working areas, type of drilling planned, and current client needs for the North Sea.
This MODU will have permanent quarters for a crew of 100 in 42 staterooms consisting of 28 two-man suites, 10 four-man suites equipped with fold-down upper berths, and five offices, four of which will have private suites attached. Instead of using add-on modules, the quarters were designed into the hull, setting new industry Standards for living accommodations on marine jack ups.
Galaxy I is designed to quickly add temporary quarters for 100 men, using crew modules placed on the pipe rack and connected to installed utility services.
Roommates will work on alternating tours; thus, one man sleeps while the other works, creating some privacy. The intent is to fashion the staterooms as suites, much like hotel rooms. All common or repetitive furnishings are the same, allowing an upgrade in quality without increasing cost.
Each stateroom has built-in bunks and cabinets for safety gear and life vests. The lockers are realistically sized, i.e., hanging coats will stay separated without hitting the locker door or back. Boots and shoes fit neatly side-by-side in the locker, and several duty shelves provide storage for work gear.
The rooms have built-in desks with video monitors and video cassette players connected by cable to a central video facility.
The stateroom ceilings are multifaceted and sometimes mirrored to give the perception of expanded space.
The toilet and shower are placed in one room. In the two-man room, the sink is situated separately inside the stateroom (Fig. 1). By moving the sink and reducing the toilet area, an additional 12 sq ft of floor space is added to the stateroom.
GALLEY AND RECREATION
The mess hall seats 50, with an alcove for senior staff and client representatives. According to Santa Fe, the galley meets or exceeds the requirements of the U.S. Public Health Service and its international equivalents, Marpol and the Dutch Bureau of Mines.
Separate from the galley is a "dirty" tea room outfitted with coffee, snacks, smoking areas, and toilets for the crew on tour. This room has direct access from the outside so the workers will not have to remove boots and dirty clothes prior to entering, and it has a second door off the galley for servicing by the galley hands.
The change room will accommodate 120 people (60 simultaneously). It is located away from the living quarters and has a special drying room for boots. The off-duty workers can relax in various recreation rooms (smoking and nonsmoking) including a sauna and a gym fully equipped with state-of-the-art workout equipment.
The rig also has a Simtran well control unit installed in the training room. The training room seats 50 and is equipped with video monitors, viewing screens, and a separate projection booth.
FIRE SAFETY
The rig has a six-man sick bay with a minimum of one trained medic on board at all times. In certain remote locations, a nurse or a doctor will be added to the staff.
The entire quarters structure is A60 fireproof. The A60 rating is a classification for a section or wall that is suitably insulated to prevent the passage of fire or smoke from a fuel oil fire directly applied to the outer surface for 60 min. This is an international standard generally set for marine vessels by the Safety of Life at Sea Convention and governed by various regulatory agencies and testing institutions.
A fire on any floor would be wholly isolated because there is no propagation capability between floors or within a floor to a control room. The only internal communication in the quarters between floors is via the stairwell, which is also an A60 boundary division. By keeping the doors closed at the stairwells, each floor maintains a full A60 fire boundary.
Thus, each floor is classed as a "temporary safe refuge" which is defined as a fireproof enclosure that in the event of a major emergency gives crews a place of transition to lifeboats or the helideck.
The team that designed the rig is a blend of architects, engineers, contractors, and project managers whose goal was to raise the standards of design and comfort on offshore rigs. Delivery of the jack up Galaxy I is expected in August 1991 from Far East Levingston Shipbuilding Ltd. in Singapore.
Copyright 1991 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
