Al Faris completes critical vessel moves

The crude-oil production facility expansion will allow production capacity to increase from 420,000 barrels to 450,000 barrels of oil per day in 2020.

Al Faris provided its client with a complete solution for loading these vessels from different manufacturers’ locations to Hamriyah and Jebel Ali Port. The company then received these vessels at Mussafah port and land transported and off-loaded to the clients’ site.

The transportation was critical in nature due to its close proximity to a live plant, and required specialised techniques, equipment and experienced staff.

All road surveys, planning, technical support documentation, authority permissions, execution plans and schedules were prepared in-house prior to job execution. This helped organise all activities smoothly with minimum delays. Execution was safely carried out by our trained engineers and operators.

After careful consideration and study of the loads, the company used its Goldhofer hydraulic multi-axle and self-propelled trailers, in configurations up to 68 axle lines, for transportation and Liebherr 1,000t, 600t and 400t crawler cranes for offloading purposes at various locations inside the plant.

Throughout the job, Al Faris committed to best QHSE practices during transportation and on-site, which was discussed in detail with the client prior to the commencement of any operations.

One of the challenges was to cross ADNOC gas pipelines, which are at a depth of around 2m from the ground level. An axle load of less than 8t per axle was maintained for crossing with all necessary permits as well as approvals from the local department of transport and Abu Dhabi Municipality. For this, the project’s maximum trailer combination of 68 axle lines was used for crossing the heaviest load of 293t.

The other big challenge was to cross the Etihad rail. Al Faris conducted an extensive engineering study and proposed a solution to design and fabricate a customised temporary steel bridge. The bridge was analysed for its load distribution. The proposal was approved by Etihad railway technical team and stakeholders.

The crossing was executed in a very constrained time frame. A window of only six hours was provided for bridge installation, crossing, and removal of the bridge for four cargos.