In a recently released case study, Sparrows explained how staff discovered the problem over Christmas, and had to complete the job during the festive season.
Fernando Bertoncini (planning engineer) and David Watson (contract support engineer) were called in to devise a complex lifting plan. The proposal was made of more than 12 drawings, a project schedule and a detailed material list. To implement the recovery and repair Digimo Grain, one of the company’s most experienced operations supervisors, was dispatched offshore.
In taking the boom from the rig it was necessary to cut and remove its heel section. After waiting on weather and the construction of rigging on board the recovery vessel, the apparatus was then taken by boat to Rio de Janeiro. An important aspect of the procedure was that undamaged sections of the boom would be re-used. One stroke of luck the team had was the client already possessed a spare heel section in Brazil of the exact type to fit the boom.
A crew of Sparrows engineers, mechanical technicians and inspectors, led by field engineer Leandro Paiva, were deployed to the shipyard and the replacement was carried out on board a supply boat. Within 24-hours a full boom rebuild had been completed. All boom sections and stress areas were also inspected, while pins were removed and replaced. It was then ready to be taken back offshore to be reinstalled on the platform.
