Streamlined Deepwater Mooring Line Production

Production of deepwater mooring ropes continues apace at Lankhorst Offshore’s state-of-the-art, fiber rope facility at Viana do Castelo in Portugal. Following factory enhancements last year, we can now handle the largest and heaviest fiber rope packages available in the industry, including the option of storing multiple rope segments on each reel. 

With deepwater development projects under increasing pressure to achieve first oil as quickly as possible, Lankhorst Offshore is committed to increasing the mooring options for naval architects. Innovations in filter design, integral cut resistant jackets, and rope engineering, allow pre-laying of the mooring lines. This can cut mooring line installation time by half, as well as reducing the weather window needed to complete the mooring.

“The innovations in rope design being shown by Lankhorst at OTC reflect the changing dynamics of deepwater mooring,” says Neil Schulz, sales director, Lankhorst Offshore. “We’re able to offer naval architects mooring lines that cut installation times and increase the ropes resistance to prelay seabed environmental factors.”

Following a 1.2 M Euro investment in a higher capacity reeler, Lankhorst is able to store two or more rope segments on the same reel with major cost savings to the mooring project. It reduces the numbers of reels needed to be transported offshore and thus vessel costs, as well as mooring line installation times. The reels are stored in a bespoke cradle for ease of transportation.  A batch of 6m diameter reels was recently transported from the rope factory to a nearby quay for shipping to the Gulf of Mexico. The full reel and cradle weighs 140 tonnes, requiring a crane to lift each reel onto a transporter.