Oil & Gas market requires experience

Since 2006, Roll Group has been developing innovative engineered solutions for heavy lifting, transportation and installation challenges both on land and at sea. This combination of transportation and installation capabilities enables us to offer complete Factory to Foundation solutions.

Early April 2020, just after the COVID19 outbreak, RollGroup was awarded with the IDGE2 project. This came with additional it challenges as travel restrictions came in place together with bans on crew changes and on visa applications from outside the UAE.

Roll-Group’s scope for this project consist of the transportation and weighing of 49 Modules from a fabrication yard in Mussafah, Abu Dhabi till lowering on to the foundation at the construction site at Das Island, UAE. The transportation was done during two periods, the first 11 modules in December 2020-January 2021 and the remaining 38 from Q1 2022 onwards. The second part of the project started in Q3 2022. The modules weighing in from 170 mt. up to 1850 mt.

The engineering for the onshore part of the project covered all the weighing, transport and installation documentation. For the sea transportation it included, but not limited to, the ballast plans, mooring analysis, grillage and sea fastening design.
For the sea transport the BigRoll Biscay was nominated being a shallow draft module carrier with excellent manoeuvring capabilities required for both the load out and load in locations. Equipment used for the offshore part consisted of 12 sets jacks and pressure sensors for the weighing, 96 Scheuerle gen 4 axles lines, 4PPU’s modified for operation at live plants, 104 support stools, 104 Load spreaders and 20 ro-ro ramps.

The clear benefits for the client are that the full transportation scope is with one company, meaning only one responsible for both the onshore and offshore transportation.  Eliminating the risk of a gap in the entire scope.

Roll Group transported all 22 modules for the Total Ethane cracker project in the USA, between April and October 2019. The transport covered seven single voyages, using both RollDock and BigRoll vessels. The services and expertise of Roll-Lift also played a part in the completion of the land transport aspects of the project.
The modules for Total’s new cracker were constructed in Hamriyah (UAE). After completion, Roll Group have rolled the modules on board the vessels for transportation to Port Arthur (USA). The ability to load and discharge the majority of the cargo directly from the quay onto our RollDock vessels and vice versa – since the RollDock vessels have a limited draft – was one of the reasons our client awarded the contract to Roll Group.
Due to the size of the modules, the BigRoll Module Carriers were utilized on two voyages. After unloading the BigRoll vessels in Beaumont, the intermediate transport to Port Arthur was arranged by Roll-Lift.

The size and weight of coldboxes can push the envelope. In order to ensure a safe sea transportation, early involvement of RollDock engineers is preferable. They can propose efficient adjustments to the module design, without loss of time and within budget.

Over the two-year period on the project site, Roll-Lift USA overcame many obstacles to safely and successfully execute all work performed at the Elba Island Project located in Savannah Georgia. The first challenge to overcome was the low weight limit and deteriorating condition of the only access bridge on to the island. This posed a huge problem for the delivery of process/pipe rack modules and heavy plant equipment components. The solution was to barge the modules from the offsite fabrication facility located 10 miles away along the Savannah River to the project site. SPMTs were used to roll the modules on to the barge at the fabrication yard and used again to roll off at the project site. Another issue with the delivery of the cargo were the poor ground conditions at the project roll off location. Roll-Lift designed in house the hefty 85ft RoRo ramps used to bridge over the poor ground and still maintain the capacity required to handle the loads imposed. Over 800 heavy crane lifts were planned and performed over the course of the project, utilizing 7 of Roll-Lift USA’s heavy lift crawler cranes and the aid of 68 lines of SPMTs for the delivery.