Time savings at sea: maintenance of Saipem 12000 completed well ahead of schedule
First-time-right
The S12000 is well-known ground for Foxdrill: a team from the company has previously worked on this drilling giant for maintenance and other projects. However, no two projects are the same. That is why the team began with thorough preparation, as always: detailed engineering, risk analysis and planning. Foxdrill's motto is 'first time right', and careful preparation forms the basis for the safe and efficient execution of the work.
100 metres above sea level
During the voyage from Angola to the yard in South Africa, the rope access team from Wagenborg Foxdrill dismantled various components at height from the rig with extreme precision, such as active heave compensators, hydraracker arms and winches, top drives including dollys and crown clusters.
One of the most impressive operations was the safe dismantling of an 8-tonne accumulator – an achievement at a height of over 100 metres above sea level.
Safe and efficient re-installation
These dismantling operations laid the foundation for subsequent maintenance work on the drill floor, initiated during the voyage from Angola to South Africa. Equipment removal continued into the initial phase of the vessel’s yard stay.
Once each component had been thoroughly serviced and inspected, the team carried out the reinstallation on the rig, placing a strong emphasis on safety and efficiency. The final activities were successfully completed at sea during the ship’s return voyage to Angola.
Six days ahead of schedule
Thanks to Wagenborg Foxdrill's efficient approach and close cooperation with all parties involved, this large-scale maintenance project was completed six days ahead of schedule. This resulted in significant time and cost savings for the client.
Read more about a previous maintenance project that Wagenborg Foxdrill carried out successfully on the Saipem 12000:
What our customer says
'Saipem 12000 SPS 2024/25 was one of the most challenging maintenance/upgrade and successful project of the last 10 years of Saipem drilling fleet.
Saipem 12000 performed an extensive overhauling program on drilling equipment to enable the ship to enter in the Condition Based Maintenance program that requested to dismantle almost all the equipment on the rig floor (2 Top Drives, 2 Crown Block, 2 AHC, 2 CMC Accumulators, CMC FASTLINE and Deadline Sheaves, all the 6 Hydra-Racker’s arms and 2 Hydra-Racker’s winches).'
"Foxdrill was part of this incredible success: the 90 days of yard stay that was reduced to 82 days thanks to the support of Foxdrill that successfully completed the dismantling and reinstallation activities of the mentioned equipment."
"Above the outstanding performance, experience and preparation, Saipem crew was impressed by the level of safety and the good practice that they took onboard: having them onboard significantly raised the level of experienced persons in the project."
Alessandro Valsecchi, S12000 SPS Project Manager
About Saipem
SAIPEM is a global leader in engineering services for the design, construction and operation of complex infrastructures and plants in the energy sector, both offshore and onshore.
It is one company organized in six business lines - Drilling, Asset Based Services, Energy Carriers, Offshore Wind, Sustainable Infrastructures, Robotics & Industrialized Solutions - we are One Company present in more than 50 countries with over 30,000 employees of more than 120 nationalities, providing the world the innovative excellence of our people and our partners for over 65 years.
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