MARCH 4, 2013 — China's Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group has secured a contract to build four AHTS offshore support vessels for Russian shipowner, FEMCO.

The vessels will be built to Sinopacific's own SPA150 design to BV class by Sinopacific's Dayang Shipbuilding unit for delivery in 2015.

The contract is the first OSV contract to be placed with a Chinese shipyard by a Russian shipowner.

FEMCO group provides services in oil and gas development areas worldwide. Its current offshore support fleet includes 11 AHTS and icebreaker AHTS vessels.

The 150 t bollard pull SPA 150 is the first medium size AHTS in Sinopacific's proprietary SP series developed by Shanghai Design Associates (SDA). Since the first ship in the smaller SPA 80 series, also designed by SDA, was put into operation 11 months ago, it has won recognition from its owner Bourbon and was recently nominated for a Support Vessel of the Year award

The 12,240 HP SPA 150  has 515 sq.m of cargo deck and is equipped with 10 t/sq.m uniform load, high pressure hydraulic deck machinery. It provides accommodations for 40 people.

All four FESCO SPA150 newbuilds will be DP2 equipped, two vessels will be FI-FI I equipped, while the other two will be FI-FI II and ORO equipped.

The main machinery will be provided by Norwegian and other European manufacturers.

Main Characteristics, SPA150
Length overall: ~72.0m     
Breadth: 17.2m
Depth molded: 7.8m     
Main engine power: 9,000 kW
Bollard pull: >150 t
Deadweight: 2,500 t