With the sail away on Friday 19 June 2015, Gina Krog, the largest launch jacket ever built by Vlissingen yard of Heerema Fabrication Group (HFG), is ready for installation. The launch jacket for client Statoil and its partners began its journey for final destination to the Gina Krog field on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
After a successful front-end engineering and design (FEED) study of HFG’s in-house engineering, Heerema Vlissingen was awarded the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract of the Gina Krog launch jacket and pre-drilling wellhead module in February 2013. Throughout the various FEED phases, incorporating the design development of the topside, HFG developed a mature launch jacket concept providing a firm basis for the EPC contract.
Within 17 months after construction, the record-breaking launch jacket was skidded onto the barge in late March 2015 and set sail for installation at the Gina Krog field in the central part of the North Sea. The Gina Krog launch jacket weighs more than 17,000 tons, has a footprint of 60m x 50m and at the top 40m x 30m. The height of the jacket is 142m. The pre-drilling wellhead module, which sails out after jacket installation, makes it possible to drill wells before the topside is in place. It weighs 265 tons.
Koos-Jan van Brouwershaven, chief executive for Heerema Fabrication Group, says, “For this largest launch jacket ever built by HFG, we engineered and constructed a state-of-the-art new flow measuring system, which optimizes the upending capabilities of the jacket during installation. Due to its heavy weight, we built skid beams on the Vlissingen yard especially for this project, which enabled us to execute the load-out of the Gina Krog jacket from our yard onto the barge, safe and with high quality.”
The Gina Krog field development is a gas, condensate and oil field in the central part of the North Sea, about 30km northwest of the Sleipner field. The Gina Krog field will be developed with a fixed platform in a water depth of 116m and will be tied into the Sleipner facilities for gas export with oil being transported by tankers.
Image: Heerema crane vessel / HFG
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