Wärtsilä and Maersk Drilling create a joint 25-year strategy for thruster services to increase uptime and reduce costs

The technology group Wärtsilä and the global drilling contractor Maersk Drilling have joined forces in a unique co-operation to create a 25-year thruster maintenance strategy for Maersk’s three semi-submersible rigs and four drillships. The parties have already completed the strategy work on the D-rigs and commenced the strategy work related to V-Drillships.

By reducing the thruster exchange time, the deep-sea rigs and drillships will spend less time in sheltered waters for thruster maintenance. The joint strategy defines the planning procedures for scheduled maintenance as well as thruster services and equipment exchange in emergency scenarios.

The new, close collaboration reflects the long-established partnership and mutual trust between Wärtsilä and Maersk. Increased understanding of one another’s operations and demands helps the two companies to plan and further develop the optimal and most efficient ways of executing thruster maintenance. With open exchange of information and knowledge, Wärtsilä and Maersk can also adopt a holistic view of the maintenance needs for a fleet of vessels over an extended time period, and thus optimise logistics and cost efficiency.

“This is an important step for us: Wärtsilä and Maersk Drilling are taking co-operation to a new level, working as one team to ensure that operations on Maersk’s drilling rigs can proceed without unnecessary interruptions. We are proud to partner with Maersk Drilling and look forward to a long and fruitful relationship,” says Tamara de Gruyter, Vice President, Propulsion System Services, Wärtsilä.