Components Transported to Jubail City Included 1,600-Tonne Product Splitter
Netherlands-based heavy-lift specialist Mammoet has overcome “immense challenges” to successfully transport and install a batch of critical components for the world’s largest propane dehydration (PDH) plant at the Jubail Industrial City on Saudi Arabia’s Persian Gulf coast.
The project, comprising 125 separate heavy-lift operations, included the transport of a 129-meter-tall, 10-meter-wide product splitter weighing 1,600 tonnes. To carry out the move, Mammoet drafted in a tower gantry lifting system and a 1,250-tonne capacity crawler crane – a CC6800 with an 850-tonne counterweight.
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According to Mammoet, the CC6800 handled the tail, keeping it clear of the ground throughout the lift, while the gantry’s hydraulic lifting system hoisted the product splitter from the top.
“Unlike most gantry lifting systems, Mammoet’s is entirely freestanding and requires no guy wires, even at a height of 130 meters,” the company said. “This means the footprint is kept to an absolute minimum, which is an important consideration on a busy and congested site like this one.”
Mammoet also transported 15 pipe rack modules weighing up to 1,900 tonnes apiece in six consecutive voyages from a fabrication plant in the UAE to Saudi Arabia.
To negotiate the 26-kilometer route from the quayside and laydown facility to the project site, Mammoet performed complex route simulations, determined where and how the road network would need to be modified and strengthened, and managed all permitting processes with the Saudi authorities.
“A large fleet of transport equipment – including 180 axle lines of SPMT, 60 conventional axles, and eight prime movers were utilized for the safe delivery of components,” Mammoet said.
Among the challenges confronting the project team in the UAE were delays in module fabrication and design modifications, which required replanning and handling larger than anticipated modules, while in Saudi Arabia, maintenance of bridges along the transport route threatened to delay the project by up to two months.
“However, with a solution-oriented mindset, the Mammoet teams came up with workarounds – including the deployment of temporary bridging systems,” it said.
The PDH plant is being built by Samsung Engineering for Advanced Polyolefins Company, a division of Saudi’s Advanced Petrochemical Company. The facility is slated for completion in 2024 and once fully operational will have a capacity to produce 840,000 tonnes of propylene per year.
According to Mammoet, Saudi Arabia is expected to allocate more than a third of its oil output to chemical production by 2030, with several new facilities being built throughout the kingdom.
Check out a timelapse video of the product splitter lift:
Mammoet is an exhibitor at Breakbulk’s three global events in Europe, the Middle East and the Americas.
