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www.sname.org/sname/mt January 2013 ese vessels were designed by Fugro and design con- sultant Skipsteknisk AS to work worldwide in the most challenging oshore areas, and are capable of towing up to 16 seismic streamers on dedicated streamer winches with a capacity of 128 km of streamer cable. e C-class vessel design therefore enables deployment of the largest possible spread of seismic streamers, which are consid- ered essential for operational eciency when acquiring data on large exploration prospects in frontier areas. e ships are designed to operate all around the world in both the ambient and seawater tempera- ture ranges that are typically encountered. Projects in the Chukchi Sea, the Barents Sea, and in African and Canadian waters have been carried out for major inter- national oil companies. In May 2011, Fugro also took delivery of the Fugro Symphony , a ship based around the same hull, machin- ery, and accommodation design. However, Fugro Symphony is prepared for oshore construction and inspection, maintenance, and repair type operations using an Active Boost 150t knuckle boom crane and two Fugro work-class remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) designed to operate in 3,000 meters of seawater. All of the vessels in this range have been designed such that they can be converted into seismic or con- struction vessels should one of these markets become signicantly more protable than the other. Clean design C-class vessels have the class designation of clean? and clean design,? which means they comply with the highest environmental standards and have a dou- ble skin in the area of the fuel tanks. e class notation applies strict rules and procedures to cover emissions of any material with global warming potential. This includes reghting chemicals, refrigerants, and fuel. Geo Caspian , at the time of building, is the worlds larg- est clean design seismic vessel. Deck areas have been arranged to provide maximum working space and clear visibility, and the handling solu- tions throughout the vessel have been selected with the goal of lowering potential risk for personnel injury. Throughout the vessel there are well appointed oces for ships ocers and senior survey specialists, and these are supplemented by large conference rooms to facilitate the eective implementation of the ships safety and operational management systems. Seismic speci?cations e vessels are rigged to tow up to 16 solid streamers with the potential to achieve an overall spread of 1,500 m, and dual sources up to 5,100 cubic inches each. e wide tow is achieved using a type of deectors made in Norway, known as the Baro 410. ese 11.3 m high deectors, with a weight of 12 tons each, require robust handling and towing systems and have been designed with a high level of redundancy. Also taken into account are the high forces experienced when recovering in severe weather conditions encountered in harsh envi- ronmental areas. e latest recording system, SEAL 428 from Sercel, is installed, which enables continuous recording of seis- mic data, eliminating the typical one second of dead time between data records. is is expected to be a great benet during complex surveys using several vessels, such as wide azimuth and undershoots. All Fugro vessels have been equipped with the latest in streamer control technology, which in combination with Two new seismic survey vessels, both C-class ships, joined the Fugro ?eet in 2010. On March 19, Fugro formally took delivery of Geo Caspian , and on August 26, Geo Coral (built in Bergen) was added to the team. Both were built in Norway to Fugro speci?cations and at just over 108 m long, 28 m in beam, and with gross register tonnage of 12,600 tons, they are the slightly bigger sisters of Geo Celtic and Geo Caribbean , which have been in operation with Fugro since 2007.