Industry First Subsea Clamping Solution Developed by North East Engineering Powerhouse

One of the North East’s leading engineering consultancies has added to its portfolio of intelligent subsea solutions with the development of an industry first subsea clamp solution supplied to one of the offshore industry’s largest subsea hardware providers.

Red Marine has developed the modular umbilical clamp system, made up of six purely mechanical elements, in conjunction with the global subsea provider, FMC Technologies. The clamp solution will be commissioned on board the deep water well intervention vessel, Island Performer, in the Gulf of Mexico and used as a key system element in Well Intervention Operations.

The state of the art vessel was purpose built for deep water well interventions and features the latest innovations from FMC Technologies including a Riserless light well intervention (RLWI) stack which enables it to complete intervention operations in water depths of up to 6,500ft.

Speaking about the umbilical clamp development programme, Joe Orrell, Managing Director at Red Marine said: “Because this vessel features a number of new technologies, it was essential we created a product that complimented this level of innovation.

“Red Marine has an established track record of consistently developing and delivering intelligent engineering solutions and this is one we’re particularly proud of. We’d even go as far as to say it’s one of our landmark projects of the year, offering an elegant, mechanical solution to a particularly challenging operational requirement.”

The engineering challenge was to develop a clamp to securely hold a new type of subsea umbilical that is compressible, very sensitive to the squeeze force applied and has a low friction outer sheath.

The solution is unusual in the industry – perhaps even the first - with its modular system of six elements, each of which houses a number of spring applied pads to ensure a consistent and reliable clamping force to the umbilical.

Even more impressive is the clamp’s ability to securely hold the compressible umbilical with in excess of 20 tonne of back tension.

Joe added: “This product is the latest in a long line of intelligent subsea solutions and clamps that have been developed by the Red Marine business over the last seven years.

“Our business prides itself on the fast track development and delivery of bespoke subsea solutions that meet challenging customer requirements without compromise. This project clearly illustrates this capability with the concept development, prototype testing, detail design and manufacturing and acceptance testing of a typically elegant technical solution in only 5 months.”

Red Marine is based in Hexham, Northumberland and core services include offshore installation engineering, subsea solutions and qualification testing. The company is well known in the industry for the rapid delivery of intelligent solutions to complex offshore challenges. Clients include Subsea 7, Technip, FMC Technologies and GE Oil and Gas.

FMC Technologies operates in locations across the world and specialises in subsea systems and technologies to the oil and gas industry.