ALE Heavy Lift, a UK-based heavy-lift and transportation specialist, has performed what it claims to be the world’s heaviest commercial lift using a land based mobile crane.
The company made the achievement whilst executing an FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) integration project in Brazil.
ALE used its AL.SK350 crane to lift the M9 module, weighing a total of over 3,000t, using its 4,000t winch system and high speed slew system. The crane was positioned at a radius of 86 meters and ALE completed the lifting operation ahead of schedule.
In addition to other heavy lifts of 2,073t and 2,089t, this was part of a four-month project where ALE was contracted to lift and install approximately 40 modules, weighing a total of over 36,000t, onto the P-74 FPSO vessel in the south of Brazil.
Michael Birch , Regional Director – UK & Projects, commented: “ALE is a dynamic and innovative business that is constantly pushing the boundaries. It’s not by luck that we have reached this milestone; we have a market-leading engineering and operations team, and it is testament to their hard work and skill that we have achieved a 3,000t lift in this environment.”
Once completed, the FPSO P-74 will be deployed at Petrobras’ Buzios field, around 200 kilometers off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, with water depths ranging from 1,600 to 2,100 meters.
Commerciality of the field was declared in December of 2013, and first oil started flowing in 2015, via Dynamic Producer FPSO, while awaiting the P-74 to come at location.