Heavyweight topside task for Freight Wings
09 May 2011
Freight Wings was charged with transporting a 2,200 tonne topside and rolling it onto a barge for a major offshore oil and gas project in India.
Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) is building the Deen Dayal West (DDW) block in Krishna-Godavari (KG) Basin, where huge reserves of oil and gas have been found. The development includes setting and drilling 15 wells to be completed by 2015. GSPC awarded the offshore platform contract to engineering and construction giant Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T).
L&T decided to fabricate the DDW Well head platform topside at its new manufacturing plant at Kattupalli near Ennore Port, on the outskirts of Chennai city. Besides fabricating the topside measuring 49 m in length, 26.2m width and 26m height at the Greenfield facility, the bigger challenge was to load out the topside at its newly constructed marine jetty.
Freight Wings Pvt Ltd (FWPL) provided L&T with plans for the transport of the DDW1 topside from its fabrication area and roll on to the barge. This included ballast and deballast calculations to hold the barge at jetty level during the anticipated three hour load out duration.
Its equipment included computer-driven self propelled modular transporters (SPMTs), self priming 400 m3/hour ballast pumps, hydraulic mooring winches, mooring gear and ro-ro ramps. The barge was moored perpendicular to the jetty using the hydraulic winches and heavy duty prime movers.
The topside was self loaded onto the SPMTs, and at the appointed high tide was slowly rolled onto the barge. After securing the topside on the barge deck, FWPL rolled off the SPMTs along with the loadout girders.
It was one of the heaviest offshore loadouts ever executed in India, said Vijay Papriwal, FWPL managing director. "FWPL has proved yet again that using in-house engineering capabilities and local expert manpower, such critical load outs, which were until recently the domain of foreign companies, can be executed by an Indian company safely and as per schedule."
The topside will be installed offshore in Kakinada, on the Indian east coast using a McDermott heavy lift offshore crane.
See a future issue of International Cranes and Specialized Transport for more pictures and an indepth report on this project.
