Project Moves Keep Mega Cracker Complex on Track

By Malcolm Ramsay

Port of Antwerp-Bruges, deugro, the JSI Alliance, dteq, Felbermayr and PSA Breakbulk joined forces to execute the seamless transport of mammoth components for INEOS Project One, Belgium’s largest petrochemical investment in decades.

From Issue 2, 2025 of Breakbulk Magazine.

One of the largest investments in Europe’s chemical sector for decades, the INEOS Project ONE in Belgium has been a hub of project cargo activity since construction began in late 2022. Over the last year however this activity has scaled up, as some of the largest and most complex components have started to arrive on site.

First announced in 2019, Project ONE is located within the industrial zone of the Port of Antwerp and entails the construction of an advanced ethane cracker and propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit, which is expected to bring substantial economic and environmental benefits by producing ethylene and propylene with much lower CO2 emissions compared to traditional methods.

“Ethylene, which will be produced here, is essential for making solar panels, wind turbine blades, lightweight materials for cars, and packaging for the food and medical industries,” Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO of the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, comments. “This project not only strengthens Antwerp’s role as a strategic hub but also helps anchor a forward-looking and sustainable industry in Europe.”

One of the most complex deliveries to date was the shipment of ten oversized storage bullets and ancillary equipment from China to Antwerp in 2024. To manage this project, INEOS selected global freight forwarder deugro to coordinate and complete transport of over 52,600 cubic meters of critical equipment.

David Richardson, operations manager at deugro, tells Breakbulk that “careful project preparation from the outset” was crucial, alongside “proactive communication and cooperation with all partners” to ensure smooth project execution and successful on-time delivery.

The huge dimensions and weight of some of the largest storage components complicated the task further, with single weights of up to 738 tonnes, and heights of almost 50 meters.

With an investment of over €3 billion, the site for the new ethane cracker and PDH unit will cover an area of 55 hectares in Lillo, on the right bank of the Scheldt, within the Port of Antwerp. The ethane cracker will have capacity to produce 1,450 kilotonnes of ethane per year, and will be built alongside utilities including a steam and power generation plant and a quay for loading and unloading ships.

“This investment is necessary for the European economy, and we are therefore proud to see this progress at the port and look forward to the further realization of this pioneering investment,” Vandermeiren of the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, adds.

Giant Equipment

The giant storage bullets play a central role in the development of this project, as these cylindrical containers are used to store liquefied ethane within the plant. Following manufacture in China, deugro had to arrange shipment for the units from Zhangjiagang Gangxin Heavy Equipment Port in the East China Sea.

The first step was to secure suitable heavy-lift vessels to handle these outsized tanks and for this deugro turned to multipurpose shipping group Jumbo Maritime. Following discussion of the requirements and timeframe, the heavy-lift vessels Jumbo Fairplayer and the K3000-class Jumbo Fairmaster were selected for the move. The latter of these being one of only two K-class ships in existence with a combined safe working load of 3,000 tonnes.

“We were not only dealing with relatively heavy but also quite large cargo items,” Kai von Taube, head of global chartering at deugro, tells Breakbulk. “This meant that we not only had to think about a ship with the necessary square meters to accommodate the cargo, but above all had to consider the crane outreach required.

“As is well-known, the lifting capacity of a crane decreases with increasing outreach. Therefore, the safe working load (swl) of the cranes used had to be significantly higher than the nominal cargo weight. That’s why we first looked for tonnage with the required crane capacity and then checked the feasibility in terms of square meters according to the possible crane outreach.”

The first vessel to load in Gangxin was the Jumbo Fairplayer, receiving two C4 product storage bullets and three C4 import storage bullets. These measured 47.8 meters in height, 9.2 meters in width and 11.5 meters in depth.

To optimize transport, the vessel’s tween deck hatch covers were placed on the weather deck to function as load-spreading equipment. Various stoppers were employed for longitudinal and transverse securing. Four of the five storage bullets were then loaded on the weather deck, with the final bullet stowed in the lower hold.

Meticulous Planning

Due to the size of the fifth bullet, the lifting, maneuvering and positioning of this final unit in the hold had to be carried out to the centimeter. To achieve this, deugro relied on its independent sister company dteq Transport Engineering Solutions (dteq) which prepared an overarching method statement for the project.

Headquartered in Bremen in the north of Germany, dteq was founded by Thomas C. Press, the owner and CEO of the deugro group and remains part of the family company. Alongside marine engineering solutions, dteq also provides port captain, surveying and supervision services and project consulting services.

For this project, the team completed detailed reviews and commentary on each different subcontractors’ input, ensuring that the interfaces were addressed and workable solutions agreed.

“Even meticulous planning may need to be amended on site due to sudden changes during the operations, [so] it is always good to attend as an experienced engineer being able to take care of the management of change procedures and to prioritize safety even when the clock is ticking,” Arlan Baylon, regional director of dteq APAC, explains.

With all five bullets loaded, the Fairplayer was laden with more than 25,000 cubic meters of cargo, weighing over 2,800 tonnes. Equivalent to roughly half the total cargo for this project, the vessel was then ready for its ocean journey of 13,000 nautical miles to Antwerp.

“Before heading to Europe, the crew made a stop in Singapore to load two Farra Marine Limited Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs),” a spokesperson for Jumbo Maritime commented. “Notably, one of these vessels was stowed on a unique modular weather platform, optimizing our deck space.”

Avoiding Congestion

The Jumbo Fairmaster was then next to load but this time the team faced disruption due to heavy congestion at Gangxin Port, which potentially meant the vessels would lie at anchor for a month before berthing.

To avoid this costly delay, deugro rapidly rearranged the loading schedule, providing additional lashing and welding crews at short notice to convince the terminal to allow earlier berthing.

“There was a clear reluctance from the terminal to berth the second vessel, the Jumbo Fairmaster due to the time she was expected to occupy the berth for operations and we were facing considering potential vessel detention as a result,” Richardson of deugro explains, adding that the extra manpower provided at short notice “saved the project and the client considerable waiting time and a huge amount of additional costs in detention.”

In just three weeks, the Jumbo Fairmaster was loaded using a similar configuration as the Fairplayer, but this time with two Propylene Glycol Product (PGP) and three Crude Glycol Product (CGP) storage bullets, giving a combined weight of 3,690 tonnes and volume of 25,286 cubic meters.

Upon arrival in Antwerp, the discharge operations were coordinated with local logistics partner Gosselin Group and heavy-lift company Felbermayr.

“In the last week of August, Gosselin Logistics control tower successfully organized the first receipt of five bullets, each weighing 570 tonnes, for INEOS Project ONE at the heavy-lift PSA Breakbulk terminal 410,” a spokesperson for Gosselin said.

Headquartered in Antwerp, Gosselin was selected as the general contractor for the marshalling yard for INEOS Project ONE. The group operates through 48 offices in 32 countries in Europe, Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia and provides full-chain logistics for partners. It also operates an inland terminal along the Albert Canal that connects the Port of Antwerp-Bruges to the European hinterland.

With the Fairplayer safely docked, the first bullets were safely discharged using the vessel’s cranes and then transferred by the team from Felbermayr, utilizing double 26-axle lines onto a stooling configuration of Sarens’ self-propelled modular trailers (SPMT).

“Thanks to the great cooperation in this extensive project, all five storage tanks were received safely in Antwerp and transported by SPMT to an interim storage site,” a spokesperson for Felbermayr said.

Construction of the giant Project ONE cracker has continued apace this year, with the arrival of the module containing the first two furnaces in early January. These units, weighing as much as 6,000 tonnes, involved one of the largest industrial ship transports ever seen at the Port of Antwerp. Construction activity is expected to peak this year ahead of the ethane cracker becoming operational in mid-2026.

“Project ONE is no longer a virtual project on paper, but is increasingly gaining a foothold in the port,” John McNally, CEO of INEOS Project ONE, concludes. “It is hugely motivating to see a plant actually rise after all these years of preparation. A lot of work has been done in 2024, but by 2025 the center of gravity of construction activity will be fully in Antwerp.”

deugro, the JSI Alliance, dteq, Felbermayr and PSA Breakbulk will be exhibiting at Breakbulk Europe 2025.

Top photo: Modules for INEOS One are discharged at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges. Credit Gosselin Group