GOM Floating Production Vessel gets Award-Winning Mooring Tech

Bardex completed its phase of floating production system (FPS) for the Shenandoah project: delivering its Off Vessel Tensioning (OVT) BarLatch mooring system. 

When installed, the FPS will be located in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico at more than 1800 m water depth. This is the second FPS project in which Bardex partnered with HD Hyundai Heavy Industries to supply its patented OVT BarLatch system. The first was the King’s Quay FPS, also moored in the Gulf of Mexico, which marked the inaugural implementation of Bardex’s OVT method. 

In May of this year, the OVT BarLatch system earned Bardex the Woelfel Best Mechanical Engineering Achievement award, conferred by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Bardex designed the OVT method to work with its patented BarLatch Fairlead Stopper technology, developed when a client wanted to address the longstanding industry concern with in-plane and out-of-plane bending fatigue and chain wear at the
conventional 7-pocket underwater fairlead. Additionally, the client wanted to eliminate deck tensioning equipment. The BarLatch Fairlead Stopper solution for off-vessel tensioning of mooring lines uses an Anchor Handling Tug Supply (AHTS) or similar vessel to apply the tension.

The OVT and BarLatch system can be used in any region of the world and is approved by ABS, BV and DNV.