Petrochem Project Tests Heavy-lift Movers

By Malcolm Ramsay

Despite turbulent times forthe global downstream oil and gas industry, many firms in the petrochemicals sector have managed to weather the storm over the last year and have continued to deliver large-scale projects and yield growth.

Project freight forwarding expert deugro has played a vital role in one such project in the U.S., which started in June 2019 and at the time of writing was still being executed. With more than 550 shipments, including a considerable amount of outsized heavy-lift components, the project has involved delivery from worldwide origins for a petrochemical refinery expansion near Houston.

Weighing a total of 24,246 tonnes (105,710 freight tons), the deliveries have included large overseas shipments from Italy, Vietnam, Korea, and China, as well as transports from domestic U.S. origins, Canada, and Mexico. The complexity of the project required detailed planning, coordination and method statement preparation. Due to the high number of oversized heavy-lift components, 12 barge movements have been executed to date, including the transport of an impressive 91.9-meter-long and 485-tonne C6 column, originating from South Korea.


Column Moves

All moves for the C6 column, a 61-meter-long lights tower and a primary fractionator with a length of 49.9 meters – which all arrived on the same vessel from South Korea – were coordinated and executed by deugro in close collaboration with the transport engineers of dteq, a member of deugro group and involved in the delivery to Port Houston. The timeline for the project saw the partners complete these moves in mid-2020, in the midst of the global pandemic, raising a number significant challenges.

“Executing complex projects and operations is always challenging, especially in terms of the health, safety and security of everyone involved. The added impact of Covid-19 does not make it any easier,” Gert Jensen, senior vice president operations USA at deugro, told Breakbulk. “As project logistics service providers for industries with the highest quality and safety requirements, deugro and dteq have appropriate processes, experience and regulations in place for risk identification and solution design to minimize risk and this approach resulted in the safe and successful execution of all operations without any issues.”


Careful Planning

Having agreed to the terms of the project, the first phase of planning was to map out the route and ensure all measures were in place to avoid any adverse outcomes.

“For the preplanning of such a challenging project, several important factors needed to be considered. These included the client’s budget, the cargo’s technical requirements, the project’s schedule, the selection of suitable transportation modes and equipment, the transport route, as well as local infrastructure, restrictions and safety regulations,” Jensen told Breakbulk.

From an early stage, deugro worked closely with dteq to consider the individual transportation modes and the equipment used across all interfaces. This involved clear definition of every operational step and process in the form of detailed method statements.

“Because of the complexity of the operations and the cargo dimensions and weight, deugro involved its project experts and dteq’s transport engineers from the early drawing review to the detail planning, method statement issuance and barge preparation to the on-site supervision and delivery,” Jensen added. dteq is an independent company of the deugro group and provides tailor-made transport and marine engineering services for the handling of oversized and heavy cargo, as well as port captain, surveying and supervision services, and project consulting.

In close coordination with deugro, dteq carried out a variety of analyses, technical studies, simulations, and calculations using computer-aided design software as well as internally developed calculation tools which had been certified by DNV. These evaluations were based on the individual cargo unit weights and dimensions and covered the complete marine engineering package, including stability and ballasting calculations, grillage design for load spreading, cargo securing calculations, mooring analysis as well as roll-on, roll-off simulations including trailer configurations.

Franklin Alvarez, regional head of transport engineering for the Americas region at dteq, explained that special consideration was given to essential factors such as vessel outreach, lifting capabilities, barge and vessel stability, lashing applications, stowage options and external factors during the transshipment operations such as wind, weather, or river current.


Loading Challenge

With detailed plans in place, the partners commenced loading to the charter vessel BBC Coral, which was docked at the Port of Ulsan in South Korea. This multipurpose vessel was chosen due to its heavy-lift capabilities. Once the cargo was brought alongside by trailer, the components were loaded using the on-deck cranes.

“Based on all the calculations, a suitable heavy-lift vessel had to be identified with appropriate stowing and lifting capabilities for the sea voyage as well as maximum crane outreach for discharge operations onto the barge,” Jensen explained.

The loading was coordinated by deugro Korea and under supervision of the surveyor, with the C6 column, lights tower and primary fractionator lifted using the Coral’s 800-tonne combined lifting capacity.

With the cargo safely loaded, the Coral set sail for the U.S. on May 5, 2020, travelling 9,641 nautical miles and arriving on schedule in Port Houston.

Upon arrival at the port, the teams at deugro and dteq faced some of their toughest challenges of the project as the dimensions of the largest breakbulk items added restrictions to movement. The project plan called for the direct transfer to a barge, for onward transport by waterway to Scott Bay.

“The most critical parts of the project were the discharge operation and final positioning on the barge of the 91.9-meter-long and 485-tonne C6 column from the multipurpose heavy-lift vessel onto the barge at the Port of Houston,” Alvarez said, “as the length and the weight of the column required precise lifting and balancing of the vessel.”


Barge Parameters

Based on the detailed method statements, the teams had calculated the optimal barge for on-carriage of the over-dimensional cargo as well as suitable tugboat constellations to safely maneuver the barge. With these in place, the barge was brought alongside the Coral, and two tugboats were utilized to position it and ensure it stayed in a specified offloading location throughout the discharge operation.

“Transferring critical heavy-lift cargo from a floating vessel onto another floating object is always a challenging operation because both objects are exposed to dynamic factors, including wind, weather and river current,” Alvarez said.

To combat this, the partners mandated regular communication between all team members to ensure they were aware of progress and any discrepancies compared with the detailed plans. Operation-specific toolbox talks with all parties were compulsory prior to the move with all stakeholders having clearly defined responsibilities and lines of communication.

“During the critical discharge operation of the oversized C6 column from the heavy-lift vessel onto the barge, the biggest challenge was the close and simultaneous communication between all stakeholders involved, and especially between the port captain, the crane, barge and tugboat operators, the stevedores, and the chief mate,” Jensen said.

Niels Meldau, managing director of dteq, reinforced the point, noting that “high value, critical components with such impressive dimensions and weight require the utmost precise analysis at all the various steps in the handling process ... Everything must be engineered and managed to strict standards. There can be no room for error.”

The requirement for detailed planning and management of risk when handling the C6 column was further increased as, at more than 91 meters long, it was far longer than the barge. As Alvarez explained, this meant that it “hung over the barge’s stern by approximately 20 meters” and as a result needed to be placed “strategically on the barge to ensure lashing according to engineering plans and to achieve proper load distribution on the structure of the barge.” The lights tower at 61 meters and the fractionator at 49.9 meters also required careful positioning.


Safe Arrival

Having successfully transferred the cargo to the waiting barge, the next stage on the journey was to sail the barge about 25 miles from Buffalo Bayou to Scott Bay.

“The voyage from Buffalo Bayou to Scott Bay went smoothly,” Alvarez said, although additional tugs were required to maneuver for this part of the journey because the overhang was blocking the line of sight for the tug operators. “Furthermore, due to its large overhang, additional tugs were needed to maneuver around Goat Island and enter the bay through the narrow stretch, also ensuring proper orientation of the barge while completing this maneuver in extremely shallow waters.”

The route, while relatively short, added further complications for planning as it crossed the bustling ship channel outside the Port of Houston and passed through the shallow waters of Scott Bay.

Throughout all stages, the teams not only had to safeguard against the typical health and safety risks in handling outsized cargo but also dealt with numerous restrictions due to the Covid pandemic.

“Regarding Covid-19, bespoke processes developed by deugro group’s QHSES department monitored the dynamic situation in each country, providing guidance to employees on travel, risk assessments and office occupancy guidelines to ensure the highest safety levels,” said Tobias M. Schultz, executive vice president of deugro.

This commitment to QHSES values, upheld throughout the project, was recognized in part when deugro received the ConstructSecure Gold Safety Award 2020, with Garrett Burke, CEO of ConstructSecure, commenting on the “remarkable job” that deugro (USA) had done in 2020 to keep employees and stakeholders safe and its “profound commitment” to managing down risk.

Based in the UK, Malcolm Ramsay has a background in business analysis and technology writing, with an emphasis on transportation and ports.