First Subsea Mooring Connectors for Shell’s Appomattox Platform
Shell Offshore has awarded First Subsea a contract to supply Ballgrab subsea mooring line connectors for the Appomattox development. The semi-submersible four-column production platform will be moored in approximately 2,195m of water using sixteen Series III Ballgrab subsea mooring connectors (SMCs) arranged in 4×4 clusters. The SMCs, with a MBL of 2,600t, are manufactured in compliance with American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) 2009 Approval for special subsea mooring connectors.
First Subsea is the only manufacturer of offshore mooring connectors to achieve ABS design approval for the design and manufacture of large-scale R4 grade forgings over 560mm in diameter. These are the largest diameter forgings to have received the approval, and set the benchmark for Offshore Mooring Accessories with forged bars to the requirements of ABS Guide for Offshore Mooring Chain (2009).