Drydocks World-Dubai is the largest and modern facility between Europe and the Far East

DRYDOCKS World is one of the most prominent names in the maritime industry. Over the past 30 years, Drydocks World has established itself as a leading, and fast growing international player in offshore and engineering, ship repair and maintenance, shipbuilding and conversion, rig building and re-furbishment, FPSO/FSO conversion, offshore fabrication, maritime clusters and yacht and fleet operations with facilities in the Middle East and Southeast Asia through its joint venture DDW-PaxOcean Asia.

The flagship yard, Drydocks World-Dubai – the world’s largest and most modern facility between Europe and the Far East – is supplemented by four other fully operational facilities; one in Singapore and three on Batam Island, Indonesia, under the newly formed DDW-PaxOcean Asia.

Drydocks World-Dubai is certified by Lloyds Register Quality Assurance for meeting ISO 9001, OHSAS 18001 and ISO 14001 requirements, and authorised by ASME and National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors for the usage of ‘U’, ‘R’ and ‘NB’ Stamps. Quality is of paramount importance to the business and providing a service that fully meets the customer’s expectations is a key process objective within the company. Drydocks World-Dubai has maintained since 2003, a British Safety Council 5-Star Award for its safety management system and is the proud recipient of the coveted British Safety Council Sword of Honour for 2012 .

Drydocks World has the resources and facilities to support the maritime industry with a broad range of services. From a simple repair job to constructing the largest semi-submersible hulls ever built, Drydocks World always aims to meet the customer’s expectations. There are several key projects being handled by the shipyard at present. Among these, some of the major projects are:

Among the several groundbreaking projects, the energy sector is being addressed. DolWin beta will be built for a large wind farm cluster in the German sector of the North Sea. It will receive alternating current from wind farms, and convert it into direct current before sending it onshore via subsea cables.

The dimension of the platform is 100.1 by 74.1 metre (m). It will be 83 m tall with accommodation and outfits and weigh 20,000 metric tonnes (mt) approximately. The platform can generate 900 megawatt (MW) power and can receive electricity from three wind farms, i.e. a total of 240 turbines. This offshore wind connection will avoid more than three mt of carbon dioxide emissions per year by replacing fossil-fuel based generation.

Drydocks World is building the world’s largest turret weighing 11,500 tonnes for SBM Offshore, a pioneer in the offshore oil and gas industry, at its world-leading Dubai based shipyard. The turret will be integrated in the world’s first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility, to be deployed by Shell Development (Australia) at its Prelude gas field off the northwest coast of Australia. It is a game changing and innovative use of technology that will allow Shell to bring new energy sources to market, by accessing offshore gas fields that would otherwise be uneconomic or difficult to develop via a traditional land-based facility.

The Turret Mooring System will anchor the FLNG facility at location for the duration of production operations, without the need to disconnect. The turret will be approximately 30 metres in diameter and 90 metres in height. The scope of the yard’s work is to fabricate and load-out the internal turret in six modules. Design, material and equipment are provided by SBM Offshore. The Shell Prelude FLNG will be built by the TSC Consortium at the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in Geoje, Korea.

It will be the largest floating offshore facility in the world, measuring 488 m from bow to stern and weighing around 600,000 tonnes when fully loaded. It will be moored over 200 km from land and will produce gas from offshore subsea fields, treat and liquefy it onboard via a cooling process before storing and exporting the LNG via conventional LNG carriers.

Drydocks World is converting two tankers to Marine Capture Vessels (MCV). This is a pioneering project, first-of-a-kind to happen anywhere. AET Tanker Holdings is converting these vessels as part of a recently awarded 20 year agreement with Marine Well Containment Company (MWCC) to provide two MCVs for containment services in the event of a potential deepwater well control incident in the US Gulf of Mexico. The conversion is being implemented at the Drydocks World – Dubai facility.

The conversions shall allow the vessels to trade as standard Aframax tankers, with capability to be deployed as MCVs. The vessel conversion scope includes installation of four power generators, four retractable type azimuth thrusters, one tunnel thruster, Dynamic Positioning system, pipe racks, structural supports for process modules and a flare tower turret, and other equipment to enable deployment as an MCV.

On the refit side of the yard’s activities, Cunard’s 1969-built former Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2), is currently in the yard for undertaking classification checks prior to her renovation as a luxury floating hotel. Drydocks World -Dubai is responsible for making the vessel seaworthy for her voyage to the East, including the overhaul of her propulsion system. Originally built for 39 knots with a steam turbine system, she was re-engined in the eighties replacing the steam turbine plant with a diesel electric plant involving a total of nine MAN medium-speed diesel engines. It is expected that five to seven of the engines will be re-activated.

Maritime World oversees Dubai Maritime City, a purpose-built entity, which is strategically located to serve the maritime industry of the world with its state-of-the-art facilities and expertise.

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