Fairstar Sets May Delivery for Forte

Fairstar Heavy Transport will take delivery of the 50,000-deadweight-ton semi-submersible vessel Forte on May 23, 2012. The vessel and its sister ship the Finesse are currently under construction by Guangzhou Shipbuilding in China.

Upon delivery, Forte will sail straight away to a module fabrication yard in North Asia to load her first cargo for the Gorgon LNG Project and is under contract for as long as twenty six months, Willem Out, Fairstar’s chief operating officer, said in a statement.

Construction on the vessel is on schedule.

“All four main engines were successfully started up prior to the slowdown that is always a feature of the time just before Chinese New Year festivities,” Out said. “The load test on the auxiliary generator set has been completed, the steam boiler has produced steam, a considerable amount of pumps and ventilators are operating.”

The final stages of commissioning will start after workers return to the shipyard from their New Year holidays. The Forte will start sea trials in the first half of April.

Meanwhile the Finesse is taking shape in a dry dock approximately a kilometer from the Forte. Out of the total of 270 single blocks, 168 blocks have been installed in the dry dock.

“Lessons learned from the construction of the Forte have proven to be of great value to our site team. The Finesse is actually ahead of schedule,” he said. The Finesse is scheduled to be delivered in the third quarter of this year.

Photo shows the Forte in its commissioning dock. Credit: Willem Out, Fairstar Heavy Transport.