IHC Engineering Business (IHC EB), the designer and manufacturer, installer and commissioner of bespoke equipment for the offshore industries has reached a pivotal point in the construction of a 300t capacity flexible pipe-lay system.
This system is destined for the Santos basin deep waters off the Brazilian coast. The completed lay system is scheduled to be installed on the Brazilian-built, Sapura Kencana – Seadrill operated vessel in late 2014.
The IHC EB system consists of three distinct packages of work; an under deck product handling system, tower system and vessel deck systems.
A key stage of the project has been achieved with the delivery of the 150t tower fabrication, one of the key structures of the system, to IHC EB’s Port of Tyne facility ahead of a six month outfitting and testing period.
The tower structure fabrication has been produced by North Yorkshire-based Allerton Steel. The Fabricator has produced the major tower sections in its Northallerton facility over the past four months, expending some 1200 hours per week at the peak of the fabrication phase.
Work for Allerton culminated in a month on site at Port of Tyne where the major sections were joined and subjected to final machining operations.
Alongside the tower system, IHC EB is also progressing the vessel deck system equipment. Both will be complete by the early 2014 delivery requirement.
This current phase follows the completion of the under deck equipment that was delivered earlier this year to the vessel builder to coincide with the vessel build sequence. This package consisted of two cable storage carousel baskets, which have 500t and 2000t capacity, and associated load manipulator devices have been produced by both the load UK supply base and in IHC group companies in Holland.
Ben Johnson, project manager for IHC Engineering Business, commented: “It is an exciting and challenging project for IHC EB. At the time of delivery to the vessel build team next year, it will be the largest pipe-lay tower to come out of our Port of Tyne Facility”.
“While the design has similarities to other IHC EB pipe-lay systems, the Stocksfield Hall-based team of talented engineers led by Project Chief Engineer Will Raynerd, have done extremely well to deliver to the right timescales and solve many new design challenges”.
Ben added: “The fully-assembled and tested tower system will be an impressive sight on the Tyne, weighing in at some 800t and standing approximately 40 metres tall when it is lifted to the vertical orientation later this year”.
“By the time we complete the project, we will have expended over half of the total project costs in the UK IHC EB supply chain. I look forward to the coming six months when we see the physical system take shape”.
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Press Release, October 08, 2013