GVA Consultants: Leading Maritime Design with Innovative Drilling Solutions

Design for life

Located in central Gothenburg, and with more than 20 years of industry experience, GVA Consultants is one of the maritime industry’s leading design and construction consultancy companies.

Operating in a number of areas, the business specialises in providing high quality designs for semi-submersible drilling units, FPSOs for oil and gas production, and floating drydocks. Today, the company operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of KBR, a global engineering, construction and services company that supports the energy, petrochemical and infrastructure industries.

Since its foundation, originally as a shipyard in the 1880s, the key factor in the success of GVA has been the formidable experience that exists among its employees and senior management personnel. The business has the theoretical and practical knowledge to design and calculate highly advanced structures, and translate this knowledge into reality. Such success can be measured by the reputation of the company throughout the industry.

For example, the organisation’s first dedicated production unit, which was constructed in 1986 and is still in operation today, has been based on the Balmoral field for 22 years without any problems – a world record achievement. Additionally, it has been involved with the Thunderhorse and Atlantis production units, the largest unit in the world and the deepest semisubmersible installation in the world respectively.

Although GVA offers a total turnkey design and engineering service that encompasses structural engineering, naval architecture, hydrostatic and stability engineering, and electrical design and engineering, the company’s core activities are focused on semi-submersible drilling rig, FPSO, and floating offshore installation design. A typical GVA project will cover everything needed by the client, from the conceptual phase through model tests, basic design, class approval, development of specifications, test and commissioning procedures, and vessel handover routines.

The GVA Series of semi-submersible drilling rigs was originally developed in the late 1970s. Featuring a simple hull design that can be easily adapted to each individual customer’s needs, the concept offers a number of benefits over other semi-submersible designs. Chiefly, the units feature a robust and simple structural configuration that features a minimum of fatigue sensitive bracing that makes the design extremely safe. Further advantages include a rigid buoyant upper hull deck-box, a clean exterior surface that significantly reduces maintenance time and costs, and favourable deck payload/steel weight ratio.

Most recently the business has launched the GVA 10000, a sixth generation dynamically positioned deepwater drilling unit capable of drilling in ultra-deep waters in harsh conditions. Designed to comply with the latest global regulations, including the stringent rules for operating in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, the GVA 10000 is designed for safe, environmentally friendly and efficient drilling operations and accommodates 160 people.

Building upon the success of its predecessors in the series, the GVA 10000 offers considerable drilling flexibility and can be easily equipped for single or double derrick operations. Its riser handling system, which can accommodate risers up to 90 feet, has been specifically designed to significantly reduce handling times. For optimum efficiency, the unit has a deck and column payload of 10,000 tonnes, which allows drilling to be achieved at depths up to 12,000 metres.

Aside from semi-submersible drilling units and FPSOs, GVA is active in a number of other areas. Ranking highly in the company’s considerable portfolio is a full range of conversion and upgrade services for the global semi-submersible fleet. The age of many of the units in use, combined with the modern challenges of deeper drilling and adverse weather conditions, means that oil companies are continually seeking to modify their existing drilling units.

Accordingly, GVA provides the full spectrum of services that covers FPSO and jack-up conversions as well as semi-submersible units. The company’s experience in the field means that it can provide a flexibility and depth of service that is not found anywhere else. Its understanding of the demands of a modern offshore unit, combined with a familiarity with the large majority of semi-submersible units in use in the industry, ensures that conversion projects carried out by GVA are equal in quality to that of a new unit, at a fraction of the cost.

As with any leader in the oil and gas sector, GVA Consultants is committed to delivering environmentally friendly design solutions that help its customers meet the most stringent operational rules and regulations. Not only does the company have the latest environmental accreditations, but the GVA Series of semi-submersibles feature a number of advanced systems that reduce the environmental impact of the vessel and its operations.

Looking to the future, GVA’s ambition remains to provide the highest quality and latest technology to its customers in order to be the market leader in the field of large production and drilling semi-submersible units. The wealth of opportunities that look set to become available in the coming years, particularly in the northern part of the North Sea and north Russia, means that the demand for drilling units will be high. By maintaining its excellent reputation and high quality standards, GVA Consultants will be the first choice to fulfil those demands for the foreseeable future.

GVA Consultants

Services Design consultants for oil and drilling services