Fast fabrication

Meg Chesshyre talks to Heerema Fabrication Group CEO Koos-Jan van Brouwershaven about the firm’s latest projects.

Cygnus PU sail away. Photos from Heerema Fabrication Group.

Heerema Fabrication Group (HFG) is benefitting from the timely award in early July this year by Oranje-Nassau Energie (ONE) of an engineering procurement and commissioning contract to build an unmanned satellite platform for the P11-E gas field on the Dutch continental shelf, 55km northwest of Rotterdam harbor.

“We are proud of this great and innovative assignment for Oranje-Nassau Energie,” says HFG CEO Koos-Jan van Brouwershaven. It is a nice fit for HFG’s Zwijndrecht yard to follow on from the Alba B3 compression topside for Marathon Oil (pictured) and the integrated production Montrose bridge-linked platform topsides for Talisman Sinopec Energy UK, both of which are in the end phase, and have moved out of the fabrication halls. Alba is due for sail away late October, and Montrose in March 2016.

The new P11-E platform is on a tight schedule. First steel will be cut by early September, and it will be ready for sail away in April 2016. ONE is also eyeing three or four more platforms in this area, with HFG in end stage discussions for one of them. “ONE is always thinking out of the box,” Van Brouwershaven says.

The design is unusual in that the main risers go through the main jacket legs. The P11-E jacket design, and the jacket itself, can also be re-used in deeper water by adding more structural work. The 13m-high, 500-tonne topside will measure 31x25m. The 1000-tonne jacket will be 49m-high.

The Alba B3 compression platform.

Some nodes for the project may be built at HFG Polska’s facility at Opole, which is currently building some conductor guides for the Maersk North Sea Culzean project. It is also working on a structural frame for HFG’s new innovation center, which will sit adjacent to the fabrication yard in Zwijndrecht, and will be operational by October.

In June, HFG’s Vlissingen yard saw the departure of the launch jacket for Statoil’s Gina Krog field (pictured right), which, at 17,000-tonne, is the largest jacket ever built by the yard. HFG invested in three skid beams for Vlissingen to accommodate both Gina Krog and the 8000-tonne DONG Hejre jacket, delivered last year. Van Brouwershaven says the roll-up of the sides of the Gina Krog jacket – planned 45 weeks in advance – was a special moment. Engineering for the project was carried out in-house.

In November, the 2000-tonne jacket and piles for Marathon Oil’s Alba B3 compression platform are due to leave Vlissingen, along with the 4500-tonne topsides currently under construction at Zwijndrecht, with installation by the Thialf off Equatorial Guinea planned for January 2016. Vlissingen is also working on the 7100-tonne Culzean well head jacket for Maersk, due for sail away next March. The 700-tonne wellhead access deck for Culzean is being built at Hartlepool in the UK. Hartlepool delivered the ACM, PU and Bravo Cygnus decks to GDF SUEZ in July this year.

The Gina Krog jacket roll up

Van Brouwershaven admits that competition is fierce at the moment. “We see there are lesser projects coming to the market at this stage,” he says. But, he is confident that HFG’s reputation and flexibility in term of sites will stand it in good stead. HFG is using its in-house facilities to the maximum – when there is more work around, there is more outsourcing.

He agrees that there is a lot happening in the wind energy market, where HFG has been active in the past, building converter stations for both ABB and Siemens. He adds a note of caution, however, saying that wind energy clients tend to ask for 100% liability. “We as a fabrication group struggle to accept those kind of liabilities, because if it goes wrong it could easily put us out of business. This doesn’t fit our needs and demands, and we are quite reluctant to go that way.” •