MWS and Marine Advisory Services for BLADE Project
Project title: MWS and Marine Advisory Services for Global BLADE Project
Project location: Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, USA
Client: Technip Energies
Dates: 2019 – 2022
Services:
MWS:
- Onshore
- Vessel surveys, inspections & audits
- Marine Advisory
Project Summary:
The $2 billion (USD) Beaumont Light Atmospherics Distillation Expansion (BLADE) project consisted of the addition of a third crude unit and distillate hydrotreating at ExxonMobil’s Beaumont refinery complex, increasing the refinery’s light crude refining capacity by 250,000 barrels per day.
ABL played a key role in supporting the successful execution of the BLADE project by delivering specialist marine warranty, marine assurance and advisory services to support the safe and efficient transportation of critical components from international and domestic locations to the refinery site, contributing to the timely and secure delivery of assets essential to the refinery expansion.
Our scope of work
ABL provided:
- Marine Warranty Surveyor and Marine Advisory Services in support of the loadout, transportation and offloading of cargoes listed below
- Review of environmental design criteria for transportation
- Technical bid review of proposals submitted by RORO vessel companies
- Suitability surveys of the RORO vessels, barges and tugs used for intermediate transport during loading operations in Thailand, discharge operations at the Port of Beaumont and the US domestic barge skid shipments
The project had a global procurement strategy with key shipments as follows:
- Reactors, towers, distillation columns, coolers, exchangers, KO drums and process towers were fabricated in South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam and shipped to the Module Fabrication Yard in Thailand for integration into the PAU / PAR modules.
- Sixteen(16) PAU/PAR modules were fabricated in Thailand and transported to the Port of Beaumont by Roll-On/Roll-Off (RORO) Ocean Transport Vessels. Due to limited water depth at the module fabrication facility, the modules were loaded onto barges and transported to the RORO Vessels moored alongside at a deeper water facility a few miles away for direct transfer from barge to ship using SPMTs.
- APS furnace modules, fired heaters, and associated furnace ductwork were also fabricated in Thailand and transported by RORO Vessel to the Port of Beaumont. These items required road transport from the fabricator to the loading port, which was undertaken using SPMTs for the modules and larger ductwork items and heavy haul multi-wheel tractor trailers for the other items, and loadout used both SPMTs and mobile cranes.
- Large reactors and fractionator towers (~80m long, 800 – 900t) were shipped by HLVs from the manufacturers in South Korea to the Port of Beaumont.
- Upon arrival at the Port of Beaumont, the modules, Furnaces Fired Heaters and larger items of ductwork were offloaded directly onto barges using SPMTs, whilst the Reactors, Distillation Columns and additional process towers were lifted to quayside and subsequently loaded onto barges using SPMTs. The barges were then towed from the Port to the refinery RORO Dock for offloading and moving to staging locations prior to final placement.
- In addition to the internationally procured items, there were nineteen (19) barge transports of equipment skids fabricated on the US Gulf Coast and transported via inland waterways to the RORO dock inside the refinery. Both loadout and offload utilised SPMTs.
Our Value
Use of our global network of offices to provide timely and cost-effective support – particularly valuable as the project transportation operations occurred during COVID
Delivered end-to-end marine assurance across multiple international and domestic transport legs, ensuring safe handling of high-value, oversized cargoes
Provided expert technical review and vessel suitability assessments, mitigating risk and ensuring compliance with environmental and operational criteria
Related services and sectors
Marine Surveys, Inspections and Audits
