The last of Maersk Drilling’s series of four new ultradeepwater drillships was named Maersk Voyager at Samsung Heavy Industries’ Geoje yard in South Korea in September 2014. Ordered in 2011, the units represent an investment of $2.6 billion and are among the most advanced vessels in the world.

Featuring dual derricks and large subsea work and storage areas, their design allows for efficient well construction and development activities through offline activities, while advanced positioning control systems enable them to maintain a fixed position in severe conditions.

Special attention is always given to safety. Equipped with multimachine control on the drill floor, the high degree of automation ensures safe operations and consistent performance. These drillships are operated by relatively small crews, but what they lack in human numbers is made up for in their level of technology and the skill and professionalism of those on board. For the first of the drillships—the Maersk Viking—training started in 2013, six months before the unit would set sail for its inaugural job in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. All training takes place at Maersk Group’s Maersk Offshore Simulation and Innovation Centre (MOSAIC) in Svendborg, Denmark.

Integrated training

Maersk Training focused on the development of integrated training, where instead of focusing exercises on a single aspect of operation, the entire crew trains in a single all-encompassing exercise using the facility’s offshore simulators made by Norwegian developer Kongsberg Maritime.

“The strength of training the different departments that work together in the simulator is that the learning is to a high extent much more implementable when going back to the real-life work situation. Far more realistic training enables the crews to apply what they learned and link the training environment to real life, and it allows us or the customers to assess whether crews can operate our equipment before they take delivery of a newbuild rig or take up a new position, for instance after a promotion,” said Maersk Training instructor Per Larsen.

Within the integrated training, instructors can initiate myriad problems. So when the crew is engaged in a standard operational exercise, portions of the crew can be addressing specific problems in real time with the operations. One exercise described by Larsen covers the contamination of fuel supply due to microbiological growth, which leads to blocking of filters and subsequent shutdown of all generators being supplied from that service tank, causing a partial blackout.

“It affects all departments on the rig. The DP [dynamic positioning] operators must ensure station-keeping with the power they have left and quickly evaluate if they can keep position. The crane needs to stop operation and try to get the bulk hose disconnected so the supply boat can exit the 500-m [1,640-ft] zone, while the drilling department needs to start securing the well and preparing for disconnection. So from an engine room issue, everyone involved in the operation on board has to react to keep the vessel safe,” Larsen explained.

In this exercise, the task for the engineers is to re-establish power supply from alternative feeds, ensuring power supply to the thrusters and thus the station-keeping ability. Once that is taken care of, they need to analyze the situation and find the root cause. They would then get all filters cleaned, crossover supply established from another service tank, engine fuel lines vented and then engines restarted and normal supply of power re-established.

“Once these initial actions are done, it is time to evaluate the extent of the contamination—how long could they run on the uncontaminated fuel left, for instance?” Larsen continued. “A part of this is also to notify the charters representative and mobilize the shore organization to support them. The other departments on the rig also are dealing with their department-specific challenges within drilling, DP and crane operations. At the same time, their safety supervisor monitors the process as all procedures and permit systems of course have to be complied with. Our integrated training brings in all these aspects, all in all making it a very challenging day at the office.”

Engine room simulator development

To simulate an entire drillship calls for highly accurate models. But in the case of Maersk’s units, they were so advanced that their engine room configurations had not yet been modeled by any developer. Indeed, engine room simulators (ERS) were a new area to Maersk Training, having previously outsourced courses using other providers’ facilities. So to make full vessel training possible, Maersk had to enter the world of ERS and simulator modeling itself, choosing Kongsberg Maritime as its partner. Maersk has for many years cooperated with Kongsberg, most recently using an extensive K-Sim Offshore platform at MOSAIC.

“The K-Sim Engine and its BigView solution was a very good and flexible platform to build on. After deciding on this, the biggest challenge was that most of the available models were aimed at conventional vessels, and the existing offshore models didn’t reflect the complexity of modern DP offshore units. Therefore, we decided to have the new models developed together with Kongsberg Maritime. By co-developing with them, we got the opportunity to ensure that the models were exactly right for the training objectives we wanted to achieve,” Larsen said.

The models needed for MOSAIC’s new K-Sim Engine simulator were the DE-88 engine, used on the semisubmersible rigs Maersk Developer, Maersk Deliverer and Maersk Discoverer, and the DE-66 model, based on the 7th generation drillships Maersk Viking, Maersk Valiant, Maersk Venturer and Maersk Voyager.

Starting point

The DE-88 was the first model to be developed. According to Larsen, the starting point was to define the training objectives and, based on these, what systems the model should contain and to what depth they should be modeled.

“The next step was to collect data and drawings from Viking and Developer and together with Kongsberg convert these into a design specification for the model,” he said. “The challenge in this phase is to take hardware systems and convert them into simulator software that matches the training objectives, finding out what is essential to achieve the learning we want and if any of the systems should be slightly modified to create a balanced and realistic model.

“After this was completed, the model development and the actual programming commenced, leading up to the FAT [factory acceptance test]. The final stage was the actual installation and configuration on site; for this stage we used experienced maintenance engineers and supervisors from the actual vessels to ensure that the model behaved as in real life.”

He added that one of the biggest challenges was deciding how deep the model should go into detail and how to overcome the fact that in a simulator there is no option to go and feel and smell the machinery. “Kongsberg Maritime’s BigView touch screen-based mimic makes it very realistic and as close to a real engine room as you can get without actually going on a rig or a vessel, but also the use of experienced engineers from the actual rigs in the design process helped to ensure that the feel was as good as it could be,” he said.

In addition to designing new models, the team also had to design a new simulated integrated automation system (IAS) for them to reflect the advanced K-Chief 700 offshore automation system on board the rigs and drillships.

Development for the DE-66 drillship model was even more challenging, as the vessels were not yet built, so in the initial phase the team was dependent on design drawings. As the vessels came closer to completion, Maersk Training was given access to more data and the ability to get input from the yard team and the crew on board.

Complex simulations

Larsen went on to explain that one of the most important aspects of the new models is the power management system, the ability to simulate complex redundant systems on DP class-2 and class-3 vessels and the IAS system.

“In today’s complicated drilling operations, there is absolutely no margin for error as the economic impact and environmental risks are huge. Besides single task simulation, we are training complete teams. Because the simulator integrates with our other simulators, we can put the DP operator on the bridge and the engineer in the engine control room and then train not only technical understanding but also cooperation and communication in critical operations and emergency scenarios,” he said.

Due to the complexity of the drillship models, Maersk Training can simulate many situations:

  • Blackout (partial or total). This is the biggest threat to a DP drilling unit as it will lead to loss of positioning and thus shut down the operation, with potential danger to rig and environment;
  • Short circuit in main switch board, leading to blackout;
  • Heavy ingress of water due to collisions such that the operators need to pump out water and/or cross-ballast to prevent the rig from sinking or capsizing. If saving the situation by pumping isn’t possible, they will need to secure the rig and the systems before they abandon;
  • Contaminated fuel, leading to generator shutdowns, reverse power trips and, depending on how the participants have set up the systems, full or partial blackout;
  • Faults in governors, voltage regulators, etc., causing the advanced generator supervision system to disconnect the faulty generator and start standby units;
  • Problems with cooling water (tripped pumps, fouled coolers, fouled filters, etc.) leading to overheating and shutdowns if the participants don’t use the redundancy and establish crossover supply from one of the other systems on board;
  • Fire, from small fires to the complete engine room;
  • Gas on the rig. Both toxic and combustible gas can be simulated, and the participants need to react accordingly to save the rig. This also includes the rig’s emergency shut-down system; and
  • Thruster failure.

Technical and human factor

“This type of training calls for state-of-the-art simulators and highly realistic models that closely reflect reality on board. By being able to conduct exercises at a very high technical level, we get the chance of observing how the participants interact under pressure. The technical and human factor aspect is thus not two separate aspects but is integrated in the same simulator exercise,” Larsen added.

“In the past, maritime simulation focus has primary been on compliance, but for the leading drilling and offshore companies operating in the high end of the market, training today focuses on enhancing the skills and competencies needed to operate complex units in a safe and efficient way. As Maersk Drilling’s new drillships are among the most advanced ever made, it was natural that the training had to adapt.”