Largest Offshore Deck Ever Built In The Netherlands
Heerema Zwijndrecht, one of the three production locations of Heerema Fabrication Group (HFG), reached a milestone in the construction of the Valhall Re-Development Integrated Production & Hotel Facility deck for BP Norge. As maximum fabrication height has been reached the 11,000-tons weighing topsides leaves the extensive fabrication hall at Heerema Zwijndrecht for further completion outside. Heerema Zwijndrecht was awarded the fabrication and integration contract in March 2007 of the 11,000-tons weighing Integrated Production & Hotel Facility topsides together with the 350-tons flare boom structure of which fabrication started in November 2007. Additionally, at 23 June 2009 Heerema Zwijndrecht received the award for the fabrication of the 2,000-tons Weather Deck module. Although Heerema Zwijndrecht’s facility has a capacity which ranks amongst the largest indoor facilities in Europe, due to limited space the unit has to be moved outside to fully complete the topsides.
The BP Valhall main deck will measure 100 meter in length, 47 meter in width and 50 meter in height. It is expected that all the structures; main deck, weather deck module, flare boom as well as bridges 1and 2 will leave the Heerema Zwijndrecht location in May/June 2010 for their final destination offshore Norway. Once completed the topsides will have a weight of over 13,000-tons, excluding Power-from-Shore module and Living Quarters.
Ronald Wiebes, project manager of Heerema Zwijndrecht says: “We are very proud to have reached this important project milestone. During the fabrication we were faced with a lot of challenges, but thanks to our dedicated and highly skilled people, we were able to mitigate the impacts. Also our close relationship with BP’s project team has contributed to this success and together we will deliver a high quality product to our client BP.”
Tino Vinkesteijn, managing director of Heerema Zwijndrecht and Heerema Vlissingen adds: “This project demonstrates our capabilities in managing complex, multi-disciplinary projects, like this integrated deck for BP Norge. Not only the complexity was a challenge but also managing 1,200 people working simultaneously on this project. This contract has provided substantial employment for more than 2,000,000 man hours at our yard, with additional supply-chain jobs being created for other companies across this region and the Netherlands. This is considered particularly important during these challenging economic times.”
Chris Ruthven, Project Manager BP, continues: “The site move represents a significant progress milestone for the BP operated Valhall Re-development Project for which everyone involved can feel justifiably proud. I would like to thank the Heerema organization, and all their sub-contractors, for the tremendous efforts made in reaching this important point, The team can now focus all its energies on having the main deck, and other important Heerema based elements of the Project, fully complete and commissioned prior to sail away.”