Fairmount sisters complete an epic 92 day tow

The two tugs took just 92 days for the long distance tow of about 15,300 nautical miles from Samsung Heavy Industries’ shipyard in Okpo, South Korea. Fairmount’s lead tow master, Captain Bertus Glas, was in command of the tow, which was completed at an average speed of 7.0 knots including stops for bunkers and stores..

The Skarv Idun is a large floating production storage and offloading unit that will be used by BP to operate in the Skarv and Idun oil and gas fields, located just below the Arctic circle in the northern Norwegian Sea.

The FPSO is 292m long, 50.6m wide, has a towing draught of 12.2m and a deadweight of 128,000 tonnes. A crew of between 65 and 100 was on board Skarv Idun during the passage for ‘on the job training’, running the vessel, surveillance and providing marine support to the tug crews.

Fairmount Sherpa and Fairmount Summit have a combined bollard pull of over 400 tons. The long distance tow was routed via Singapore and the Cape of Good Hope. CEO of Fairmount Marine, Albert J. de Heer, commented on the completion of the tow, saying, ‘The towage was completed is just 92 days, including stops for bunkers, other supplies and crew changes, exactly in line with the original planning. Considering the enormous distance this is a great achievement.’

FPSO Skarv Idun will remain in the port of Stord for some time for final fitting out and final preparations. The tugs Fairmount Summit and Fairmount Sherpa will then assist with the positioning and mooring of the Skarv Idun later this month off the Norwegian coast. Production in the oil and gas fields is expected to start up in the third quarter of this year.