The owners of jack up drilling rigs will have their rig’s legs fully extended into the air when the rig is afloat and being towed by tugs to a new location. When the new location is situated in an area far away from the previous site, the owner can opt for a transport barge ship like dockwise ships. The legs easily tower 160 meters into the air and even newer platforms have legs that come up to 200 meters. Drilling in ever deeper water is looming for every owner of existing rigs and they are tempted to have some rigs redesigned and equipped with legs as long as allowed by the physical options the design allows.Therefore there is a desire to have legs elongated and this means that new leg parts need to be put on top of the existing legs.

Another situation is becoming valid when rigs have to be deployed in areas that have limited height access due to bridges or channel sizes. The option here is to cut legs onto the lengths required and after getting to the site of deployment put the previously removed parts back on top of the legs again.

FG, having the principal knowledge and track record of similar lifting projects, has developed a system to have rig leg parts installed on top of the existing legs, in order to extend these: the FG Rig Uplifting Leg Extension System (FG RULES).

This lifting system is capable of lifting maximum 200 tons and it climbs into the leg of a rig. Once it is at the top it’s crane can pick up a leg part from a barge or from the quay side and put it on top of the existing leg, to be welded on and when ready it climbs to the next level and repeats the procedure.