World Class Heavy-Lift Modules Transport

Tecnicas Reunidas (TR) secured the contract for Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) for a refinery project in Singapore, including equipment, material, and module transportation and installation.

In early 2020, Dextra Transport was awarded with Package B Offshore, which involved transporting 72 modules fabricated at three different locations via Deck Carrier from Thailand to Singapore. This included handling operations at both the point of loading (POL) and point of discharge (POD), along with designing, fabricating, and installing seafastening equipment.

Despite the project's suspension for over a year and half due to the Covid-19 pandemic, our team ensured vessel availability, facilitating an aggressive shipping schedule with an average of one shipment departing Thailand every 2-3 weeks.

Our unique advantage lies in our seamless integration of engineering and on-site operations. The very team that handles the engineering aspects is directly involved in site preparations, ensuring flawless execution according to plan. This continuity allows us to promptly address any issues that may arise on-site, leveraging our in-depth understanding of the project's history and requirements. Our flat organizational structure facilitates efficient communication and decision-making, eliminating the risk of information loss between engineering and operations.

Sea Transport Engineering

Our team started working over a year before the 1^st shipment for three different reasons:

1. The consecutive nature of the shipments necessitated an efficient strategy for seafastening material re-use,
2. Lead time for steel structure to fabricate the seafastening,
3. All documents had to meet stringent approval procedure by the Marine Warranty Surveyor.

Within just three months, our team completed the conceptualization and engineering of the seafastening, achieving remarkable efficiency. The calculated weight of the seafastening was only half of the customer's budget, resulting in significant cost savings. Additionally our engineers designed a pin/pin connection system to connect the braces reinforcement to the module structure, minimizing the need for hot work in Singapore, where restrictions and labor costs are high. This innovative solution allowed for the swift removal of 30 bracings in less than 24 hours, expediting the load in process.

Next step for our engineers was to prepare all the other engineering documents for the 19 shipments:

• Stowage and Seafastening Plans,
• Seafastening Calculations Note,
• Hogging and Sagging analysis,
• Vessel Deck strength by Finite Element Analysis,
• Mooring plan and calculations,
• Ballasting calculations at POL and POD.

Given the significant size and weight of the modules, we conducted thorough analyses to ensure structural integrity of the modules against the effects of hull deflection caused by waves during sea transport.

Despite the complexity, we were able to complete these analyses swiftly without compromising on quality.

Heavy Challenges

Finally, in this project, Dextra Transport faced the challenge of transporting a module measuring 48 meters in length, 37 meters in height, and weighing approximately 4,130 metric tons.

Furthermore, we developed an in-house shimming procedure, executed step by step, to evenly distribute the load across all supports. Despite the obstacles, the installation was successfully completed within 24 hours, much to the satisfaction of our customer and adhering to the planned schedule.

Our primary objective was successfully achieved: safely deliver this milestone module to its destination.