Saipem is constructing a new fabrication yard in Brazil close to the Santos basin. Pier Alberto Viecelli and Andrea Intieri of Saipem share the details and scope of the investment.
As the global offshore oil & gas industry makes giant steps towards ultra-deep waters, an important contribution arrived through last decade’s tremendous discoveries by Petrobras in the pre-salt Santos basin. Overall, the Brazilian giant is planning to invest around $240 billion over the next five to 10 years.
As a result, this market is one of the most challenging from three points of view: the high-technology required, the necessity for a local skilled workforce, and the need for infrastructure. Saipem is facing this challenge by further expanding its presence in the country.
This includes the wide utilization of top-of-the-class pipelaying and offshore construction vessels, the development of a strong engineering and project execution center in Rio de Janeiro, and a major investment in a new fabrication yard.
The latter is currently under construction in Guarujá (state of São Paulo) and located nearby the pre-salt Santos basin. It will cover 350,000sq m for an overall annual capacity of 30,000 tons. It will represent a strategic facility for the flourishing Brazilian oil & gas market.
The facility, Portuguese Centro de Tecnologia e Construção Offshore (CTCO), is designed to serve pipeline, and subsea umbilical riser and flowline (SURF) projects, and will also support the overall deep-water industry.
The CTCO is already supporting important offshore projects for Petrobras, Rota Cabiúnas Gas Export Pipeline, Sapinhoá Norte and Cernambi Sul Riser System, and represents a big opportunity to develop the local workforce and entrepreneurship.
All challenges for Saipem under the motto “definitivamente aqui” (meaning “definitely here”).
Strategic position
The CTCO is located at the entry of the left bank of the Santos harbor (the first port in Latin America) and is only one kilometer from the open sea.
Saipem’s choice is important not only for the overall oil and gas potential linked to the nearby Santos pre-salt basin - only 300 km away from the yard facilities - but also for the attractiveness of the state of São Paulo, which is willing to develop conditions for the enhancement of the local economy.
A broad mission
The yard layout was conceived to serve contracts already acquired, as well as future developments linked to the pre-salt basin exploitation. The CTCO will provide a wide range of services to support the growth of the offshore industry.
Among them will be marine base services, pipe laying support, double/quadruple joint fabrication complete with coating, spool prefabrication and base services, as well as light fabrication services for subsea components like pipeline end terminations (PLET), pipeline end manifolds (PLEM), suction piles, jumpers, risers, spools, etc. It will also carry out heavy fabrication for components such as buoyancy tanks, their accessories, and large anchor piles.
The CTCO is designed to allow efficient operations: the material flow has been studied for high standard productivity from incoming reception (raw steel materials arriving mainly at the service jetty) up to fabricated items load-out from the main quay.
The facility will be equipped with different workshops. One will be dedicated to the fabricating double/ quadruple joints (5,400sq m). This onshore activity will allow an optimization of offshore pipelaying by reducing the number of welds and related non-destructive tests (NDT) performed onboard. Other workshops will be used mainly for the prefabrication of subsea components. The main workshop, with a covered area of 13,100sq m and equipped with various overhead cranes, will be used to manufacture structural items from raw steel materials by means of flame cutting, beveling, rolling and welding, Table 1.
Another workshop will be dedicated to piping prefabrication with specific material segregation systems. In the prefabrication sequence, all items will be sent to the coating/ painting shop in a fit for purpose area equipped with ventilation and air filtering systems. Afterward, the items will be sent to the main assembly area where they will be handled using various cranes (including a 350ton tower) before the load out. The CTCO will also include a welding and NDT training center, large office facilities, parking area, and canteen. All operations will be conducted in accordance with Brazilian law and to the most stringent quality, health, safety, environment, and sustainability procedures.
The main quay will allow a wide range of load outs with a dedicated reinforced area for heavy items. The quay’s sizing allows future berthing of most Saipem vessels, including its flagships and the vessels often operating in the South Atlantic such as the FDS and FDS2, without interference with the Santos port activities.
A sustainable framework
As part of the development of the CTCO, Saipem is maintaining very good relationships with the local authorities, including the Prefeitura Municipal de Santos and the Prefeitura Municipal de Guarujá (PMG). Memoradums of understanding have also been signed with the PMG and with the state of São Paulo. A partnership with SENAI (Serviço Nacional de Aprendizagem Industrial) will provide a two-year training program for local people to possibly work in the yard.
The CTCO will also leverage the opening of new local businesses, through a project in progress for the development of a business incubator. It offers opportunities to local entrepreneurs through an ad-hoc observatory composed by representatives of industry, government, universities and unions.
Offshore challenges ahead
Ongoing is the offshore campaign of the EPIC contract for the P55-SCR risers and flowlines to be installed by the FDS and the FDS2, multipurpose J-lay and construction vessels, in the Roncador field, a challenging deepwater development in the Campos basin in water depths ranging from 1,500m to 1,900m.
In 2011, Saipem started significant EPIC contracts for Petrobras such as the 18in. Sapinhoá (Guará)-Lula offshore pipelines in 2130m water depth and the 18in. Lula-Cernambi offshore pipelines in up to 2232m water depth. The offshore campaign for both projects will be performed by the FDS2.
In 2012, Petrobras assigned Saipem two important contracts (see side article) for which the CTCO already started providing its services.
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Pier Alberto Viecelli is assisting the Saipem operations department in Brazil on an overall sustainable plan in liaison with local authorities, and has been training fabrication personnel since 2011. Viecelli is a civil engineer who graduated from Univesidade Mackenzie, São Paulo, Brazil. |
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Andrea Intieri joined Saipem’s Business Development deptartment this year. He graduated with honors in industrial engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Italy. |
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