First Subsea Awarded a New Mooring Connector Contract

Deepwater mooring specialist, First Subsea, has been awarded a contract by Chevron U.S.A. Inc. to supply the mooring connectors for the Jack & St. Malo semisubmersible hub production facility in the Jack and St. Malo fields located approximately 280 miles south of New Orleans, Louisiana, in water depths of 2,133 m (7,042 feet) in the Gulf of Mexico.

The semi-submersible, floating production unit (FPU) will be moored by 16 Ballgrab, ball and taper, mooring connectors attached to polyester mooring lines in a 4x4 arrangement. The Ballgrab Series III male connectors will be the largest produced so far with an un-corroded 2,599mT (25,491kN) MBL, and the first to comply with the new ABS Mooring Guide 2009.

The Ballgrab connector comprises a male connector and female receptacle. The female receptacle will be installed subsea with the mooring system's suction piles, mounted on docking porches. When the FPU is in position, the male connector, attached to the mooring line, is lowered from the surface into the female receptacle to complete the mooring installation. The process is then repeated until all 16 mooring lines are connected.

"We are delighted to have been awarded the Jack & St Malo FPU mooring connector contract," says Brian Green, general manager, First Subsea Ltd. "The Ballgrab mooring connector provides an efficient method of deploying deepwater mooring lines. For the Jack & St Malo connectors, we will be drawing on our world leading research into large scale forgings to optimise mooring performance."