SECTOR REPORT Ӏ OIL AND GAS
year. The US ended 2022 with a production of 11.9 million barrels of crude oil per day, 0.7 million barrels per day more than the previous year. These figures have allowed the US to become, for the first time in two decades, the world's leading oil producer. As if to reinforce that message,
in March president Biden gave the go-ahead for the massive, controversial, and much-opposed Willow oil drilling project in Alaska. So it is not just liquefied
petroleum gas export infrastructure than needs cranes; the oil and gas extraction sector is also in business. Belgian headquartered crane rental services, heavy lifting, and engineered transport service provider Sarens reports that in order to meet the increase in supply and in demand the US energy sector needs to start a multitude of new extraction projects, especially in the state of Texas, which is responsible for approximately 42% of all domestic production. Sarens collaborates on a daily basis in the construction and maintenance of oil infrastructures and for years has led projects in the oil sector in the USA. An example is the construction
and improvement work carried out at the Corpus Christi refinery in Texas, carried out together with Kellogg, Brown and Root. In this project Sarens used a variety of its largest capacity cranes, including Liebherr LR1350S 385t crawler cranes transported from Australia, to lift and position the two hydrocracker reactors from the plant and 58 modules, essential to the operation of the plant. All operations were carried out while the facility was still in full operation. The project was completed on schedule. Internationally, the company has carried out major projects in locations such as Angola, in the Norwegian sector of the
North Sea, and in South Korea, where it is especially involved in the expansion of the Ulsan oil plant. For that project it created a custom-made gantry system for heavy lifts. The system is embedded in the client’s steel structure and is capable of a wide variety of lifts. The expansion of the plant was reflected in South Korea’s economy; it created more than 20,000 jobs and raised the country’s export power by 2.5 trillion won (US$ 2 billion) per year. Netherlands-headquartered lifting and transportation specialist Mammoet can report similar success, this time in boosting a more traditional oil-producing economy. The Fujairah F3 power project will be the largest independent combined cycle power plant in the UAE. Located 300km northeast of Abu Dhabi, the 2.4GW plant is being developed as an Independent Power Plant (IPP) project, incorporating an efficient combined cycle technology, and it will make a crucial contribution to the country's power generation sector.
Mammoet at the
Fujaira F3 power project, UAE
TURBINE TRANSPORT Mammoet was tasked with receiving, transporting, lifting and installation of components, including the three largest- capacity and most efficient gas turbines in the UAE. In total 105 powerplant components needed to be transported 23km from the Port of Fujairah in Abu Dhabi to the project site. All routes bar one passed on steep slopes through the mountains inland and so were too restrictive. The only viable route also presented a big challenge. The route had an overhead bridge with a maximum clearance of 7.3m while some of the components, such as the gas turbines, needed a clearance of 7.5m – including the trailers. To allow the cargo to pass under the bridge Mammoet’s engineers loaded the turbines directly onto the trailers without the use of standard transport beams. This reduced the overall transportation height by approximately 30cm but meant the cargo could not be offloaded on stools for temporary storage and would need to
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