page_title: Iolair
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Iolair / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Iolair semi-submersible offshore platform under construction at Scott Lithgow shipbuilders, in Port Glasgow and Greenock. In fitting out basin, so estimated date 1982 – scan from slide.
context_page_description: Iolair is a specialised semi-submersible offshore platform designed for BP to support and service oil platforms in the North Sea and served as an emergency support vessel in the Forties Oil Field. Since 2000 it has been working in the Cantarell Field, Mexico as an offshore construction and maintenance service vessel operated by Cotemar S.A de C.V.
context_section_description: Designed by Victor Griffin Carrell and Eric Tim's for BP. 
  She was built by Scott Lithgow in Port Glasgow, and launched on 6 April 1981. In her early years, she was based in the BP Forties Oil Field.
  In 1995, she was sold to U.S. drilling company Reading & Bates. She was to be converted to a workover/well intervention vessel and was stationed West of Shetland. The modifications included removal of some of the top structures, removal of the fire-fighting systems, closing of the dive tube and wave surge tank. However the intended conversion was never carried out and she was heavily involved in the installation of subsea production equipment using Remote Operated Vehicles. She was also heavily involved in the commissioning of the Foinaven and Schiehallion floating production vessels.
  In 2000 she left the UK oilfields and went to the Bay of Campeche, Mexico, working in the Cantarell Field. There she carries out construction and platform support work. She was sold in 2001 by Transocean, who had taken over Reading and Bates, then sold to Exeter Marine Ltd. and since 2017 is  owned by Iolair Offshore Pte Ltd. and registered in the Marshall Islands, a long way from her original registered port of Dundee in Scotland.
caption: Iolair under construction at Scott Lithgow
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