Dubai based Polarcus Limited held a double naming ceremony on Wednesday for the Company’s newest vessels, POLARCUS SAMUR and POLARCUS ALIMA, to join the company’s fleet of 3D seismic vessels. The ceremony was held at the Drydocks World – Dubai shipyard and was attended by over 250 local and international guests.
POLARCUS SAMUR is a purpose-built 8 streamer 3D seismic vessel of the ULSTEIN SX133 design. The SX133 design has an overall length of 84.2 metres and a beam of 17 metres. POLARCUS SAMUR has a maximum speed of 18 knots and is capable of deploying up to 8 streamers each of 6,000 metres length, or 6 streamers each of 8,000 metres length, with lateral streamer separations of between 25 and 200 meters.
POLARCUS ALIMA is a purpose-built 12 streamer 3D seismic vessel of the ULSTEIN SX134 design and sister ship to POLARCUS ASIMA currently in production off the Falkland Islands. The SX134 design is the largest in the company’s fleet with an overall length of 92 metres and a beam of 21 metres. POLARCUS ALIMA has a maximum speed of 15 knots and is capable of deploying 12 streamers of 9,000m length at 100m separation.
Both POLARCUS SAMUR and POLARCUS ALIMA are ‘Arctic-ready’ with an ICE-1A class notation, double hull, and an advanced ballast water treatment system that eliminates the risk of introducing invasive species into fragile ecosystems such as those found in the Arctic.
In its fourth quarter report, Polarcus announced that it signed shipbuilding contracts for two new ultramodern 12-14 streamers seismic vessels for delivery in the first half of 2012.
