ALE is approaching the final stages of its load-out operations with the equipment of SPMT for the Upper Zakum 750 Island Surface Facilities (UZ750) Project, one of the world’s largest offshore oil field projects based 84km offshore, northwest of Abu Dhabi, UAE.
The global heavylifting contractors secured the scope to deliver almost 100 different modules to the north, south, central and west islands of the Zakum oil field, the second largest field in the Arabian Gulf and the fourth largest oil field in the world.
The modules consist of a variety of pipe racks, process modules, buildings and substations, weighing between 120t -4,700t and some modules measuring over 50m long. ALE are contracted to deliver these from various fabrication yards in the Arabian Gulf, to the project site on the artificial Zakum islands.
ALE will be using a variety of different techniques, including engineering, weighing, land and marine transportation, load-ins, load-outs and installations. Furthermore, ALE will be utilising a range of transport equipment including weightors, SPMTs, (self propelled modular transporters) conventional trailers and external/internal ballast systems.
Operations commenced in October 2015 and since then, ALE has delivered all 29 modules offshore to the south island and 38 modules out of 40 for the north island, with the final 26 awaiting delivery for the west island.
During this project, ALE has used 40 – 252 axle lines of SPMT (self propelled modular transporters) to perform the transportation and load-out operations, making it one of the largest amount of axle lines ALE has used in one project.
The UZ750 project is currently under construction offshore in Abu Dhabi. The project
involves the construction of four artificial islands, the central island will house the processing facilities and north, west and south islands will act as satellite platforms. The oil field is set to increase the overall oil production capacity of the UAE by 750,000 barrels of oil per day in 2017, which will be sustainable for 25 years.
Sachin Kumar, Project Engineer for ALE, said: “It is fantastic to be involved in one of the
world’s largest offshore projects. The challenge scope of transporting such heavy and
abnormally-sized loads by land and sea, has meant that we are combining different
techniques and equipment. During the project, ALE has set very high standard of safety
whilst showcasing our turnkey capabilities. As we progress with the project, we look to
continue these standards and we are on schedule to complete the delivery of all items in the next few months.”
The final portion of modules for the west island are remaining and the project is expected to finish mid-2017.
