''Helix Producer I'' is a ship-shaped

monohull right A monohull is a type of boat having only one hull, unlike multihulled boats which can have two or more individual hulls connected to one another. Fundamental concept Among the earliest hulls were simple logs, but these were generally unstab ...

floating production and offloading vessel, converted from the ferry MV ''Karl Carstens''. It has no storage capability.

''MV Karl Carstens''

The ship was built in 1986 for

Deutsche Bundesbahn Deutsche Bundesbahn (, ) or DB () was formed as the state railway of the newly established West Germany (FRG) on 7 September 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG). The DB remained the state railway of West Germany u ...

as a

roll-on roll-off Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or usi ...

(RORO)

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

serving on the

Vogelfluglinie The (German) or (Danish) is a transport corridor between Copenhagen, Denmark, and Hamburg, Germany. As the Danish and German names (literally: '' bird flight line'') imply, the corridor is also an important bird migration route between arcti ...

, a connection between

Fehmarn Fehmarn (; ; from Old Wagrian Slavic languages, Slavic "''Fe More''", meaning "''In the Sea''") is an island in the Baltic Sea, off the eastern coast of Germany's northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is Germany's third-largest island, afte ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. It remained in service from 1986 until 1997.

''Helix Producer I''

The ship was reconfigured as a Floating Production vessel and converted between 2006–2008 at the

Viktor Lenac Shipyard The Viktor Lenac Shipyard ( or ''Shipyard Viktor Lenac d.d. (JSC)'') is situated on the northern Croatian Adriatic coast, 3 km from the largest Croatian port. It was founded in 1896, and was among the first in the world to deal with ship leng ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. Topside production facilities were designed by OFD Engineering in Houston, Texas and installed in 2009 at the Kiewit shipyard in

Corpus Christi, Texas Corpus Christi ( ; ) is a Gulf Coast of the United States, coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat and largest city of Nueces County, Texas, Nueces County with portions extending into Aransas County, T ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. ''Helix Producer I'' has a Disconectable Transfer system (DTS) designed and supplied by Flexible Engineered Solutions LTD (FES), UK, and consists of a riser buoy supporting sub-sea risers and control umbilicals that would be connected to a deep water well and can be released from the hull, allowing the vessel to move out of the way of an approaching

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its ...

. After the storm, the vessel would return to the site and reconnect the buoy resuming normal oil extraction. It is operated by the

Helix Energy Solutions Group Helix Energy Solutions Inc., known as Cal Dive International prior to 2006, is an American oil and gas services company headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company is a global provider of offshore services in well intervention and ROV operation ...

and was scheduled to operate on the

Phoenix Oil Field Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), an immortal bird in ancient Greek mythology * Phoenix, Arizona, the capital of the U.S. state of Arizona and the most populous state capital in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: ...

in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

, but on 14 June 2010 Helix announced that the ship would be directed to assist BP at the

Deepwater Horizon oil spill The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill was an environmental disaster off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. It is considered the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum in ...

site. In its new configuration the ship has a length of , a breadth of (increased from before ), a depth of , and a draft of . The vessel has a maximum displacement of , and as a light ship of .

Service at ''Deepwater Horizon'' site

In June 2010, BP announced that ''Helix Producer I'' would join ''

Discoverer Enterprise ''Discoverer Enterprise'' is a fifth generation deepwater double hulled dynamically positioned drillship ( ASTANO FPSO design) owned and operated by Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling Inc., capable of operating in moderate environments and ...

'' and ''

Toisa Pisces ''Toisa Pisces'' is a Liberia-flag of convenience, flagged well test and servicing vessel owned and operated by Sealion Shipping, Sealion Shipping Ltd. She is classified by Det Norske Veritas as an oil production and storage unit. ''Toisa Pis ...

'' at the Deepwater Horizon site to process oil that is flowing from the deepwater well. While ''Discover Enterprise'' can process about 18,000 barrels (760,000 US gallons; 2,900 cubic metres) of oil per day, ''Helix Producer I'' can handle about 30,000 barrels. The estimate of the uncontrolled oil flow at that time was up to 60,000 barrels. It was anticipated that ''Helix Producer I'' would be used for 2 months for this mission. Oil from ''Helix Producer I'' was to be offloaded by a shuttle tanker. Starting in early August mud, later cement was pumped into the well, eventually closing it, so that by 19 September 2010, it could be announced that the

Macondo Macondo () is a fictional town described in Gabriel García Márquez's novel ''One Hundred Years of Solitude'' (as well as several others of his works). It is the hometown of the Buendía family. Aracataca Macondo is often supposed to draw from ...

Well had been finally killed.

References

{{Deepwater 1986 ships Floating production storage and offloading vessels Ships built in Kiel Merchant ships of the Bahamas Deepwater Horizon oil spill