The challenge

During a turnaround offshore, the inspection of a ballast water tank revealed major corrosion challenges both inside and outside the tank. The tank, which is filled with seawater and must ensure that negative pressure in the storage cells is maintained, is located in the equipment shaft 95 m above the seabed and is accessible via a lift 30-40 m below the sea surface.

The challenge in this area was that other maintenance activities had to be completed before any welding work on the tank could be carried out – which would have resulted in an extension of the turnaround by an entire week, with the entailed costs.

 

Avoided delay

Operations manager Jørgen Vestre-Øen in Senfase is very satisfied that the team quickly found an alternative solution for repairs. - By replacing welding with wrapping, we were able to repair the ballast tank so that it would last the lifespan of the platform. Since this work could be done in the original shutdown window and in parallel with other operations, the customer avoided a week's delay of the turnaround.

Four surface workers with top expertise in wrapping spent two days for pre-treatment and preparation and three days for wrapping the tank. The tank was then hardened and could be used again at the start of operations, at the estimated time.

 

Significant cost saving

Vestre-Øen estimates the cost savings with production start-up and simplified solution with wrapping can be estimated to a week's production turnover in the hundreds of millions NOK.

– We differ from other players in being very solution-oriented and forward-looking. Our teams also have expertise in several specialist areas, which makes it possible to solve most challenges out in the field. We quickly take the initiative if we see a better way of solving tasks – and we find that the customers also greatly appreciate this, says Vestre-Øen.

 

Great Cooperation

The assignment was completed in five days through great cooperation across installations offshore, where the necessary personnel and materials were flown in on short notice to complete the assignment.

– Each wrapping design is unique in relation to its use and requires careful calculations of design pressure. Here we have good experience and were able to fly in what we needed from the other platforms so that we were able to solve the challenge for the customer, in great cooperation with ICR, which supplies the material.

 

A leader in wrapping

Traditional maintenance of the ballast tank with sandblasting, welding and painting would have taken at least a week to complete, in addition to the fact that nearby maintenance jobs would have to be completed first. With the lamination solution, the customer saved an extra week of turnaround downtime. Beerenberg is a leading ISO supplier regarding lamination on the Norwegian continental shelf and combines this with multidisciplinary personnel.

– We have a reputation that we perform well, and we constantly receive new inquiries. We recently received a request from a platform we don’t normally support, asking if we could repair a crack in a cooling water pipe, without having to shut down production. We mobilized on short notice and carried out the mission with great success.