NEW REACTOR BEING ROLLED OFF THE BARGE
SPMTS MOVING A PIPE RACK INTO POSITION ON SITE
MAMMOET'S SELF-PROPELLED SKIDDING SYSTEM
Posted on 04/10/2015 7:33:29 AM PDT by thackney
The Whiting Refinery Modernization Project is the largest and most complex upgrading project in BP’s recent history. BP asked Mammoet to assist in the massive undertaking filled with logistical, constructional and meteorological challenges. Mammoet accepted the job, taking on the handling, management, transport and installation of a large number of components built in factories all over the U.S. For five years, Mammoet coordinated logistical activities on-and-off-site to safely complete the construction as efficiently as possible.
Almost every processing unit in the refinery had to be modified to some degree. Carrying out the many individual jobs was relatively easy as compared to overall onsite management. Every lift over another unit had consequences for other parties working in the same area. Mammoet often had to come up with solutions to operate in tight quarters where standard equipment would not fit. Further challenges were presented by the weather – heat, thunderstorms and blizzards were all potential causes for delay. The key to success lay in careful planning and efficient project management as well as adaptive and innovative engineering.
In combination with Mammoet’s fleet of high capacity equipment, this approach allowed BP to build larger modules. Bigger cranes were of central importance, making it possible to construct larger modules, raise them in fewer lifts, and save considerable time. This also meant fewer road transports and therefore a smaller impact on local traffic. When spatial restrictions prohibited the use of standard equipment, Mammoet created the tools to move components to their final destination despite the restrictions. Mammoet’s Self-Propelled Skidding System was invented for this purpose: it allows the skidding of components at heights, thus adding to the efficiency of construction jobs. Also, having a wide range of different types of equipment at the site’s disposal proved to be a cost effective advantage, as it allowed optimization of project management.
Despite the many challenges, Mammoet completed the overhaul weeks ahead of schedule. Five years of innovative engineering, highly efficient project management and nearly half a million incident free man-hours on-site turned BP Whiting into North America’s premier refinery.
SPMTS MOVING A PIPE RACK INTO POSITION ON SITE
MAMMOET'S SELF-PROPELLED SKIDDING SYSTEM
Way cool! Thanks for posting!
My former company, Shared Systems Technology, did refractory work on the GOHT (called goat) the boilers and fixed the fireproofing on all the structural steel (in addition to fireproofing the field joints)
I was on-site at Whiting several times.
Basically, I liked the way some BP officials put it....we are building a refinery inside an existing refinery.
Amazing project with over 15,000 contractors badged to work on the site.
It was an amazing display of coordination.
For later....
Wow, that shows the scale of this monstrosity. Pretty cool.
Sort of makes the expression “you didn't build that” a very stupid thing to say. BHO, p_resident of the USA...
Let the record show that this is occurring in... Indiana.
I worked on the engineering side of this for the Coker Unit a few years back.
Massive amount of off-site fabrication was partly done due to minimizing union labor costs/schedule.
Where off-site was the fabrication done?
The BP plant was one part of the financial empire of oil tycoon John D Rockefeller, when it first began producing kerosene and other petroleum products in 1890. Situated on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, in the very heart of America’s bustling industrial Midwest, the refinery prospered for decades, along with nearby Chicago and other cities of the region.
While, the past couple of decades have seen rough economic times in northern Indiana, as some of the steel mills and factories were shut down, BP’s Whiting refinery continued making gasoline and other products.
And, today, the refinery is thriving, thanks to its location and a multi-billion-dollar investment that will make the plant the keystone of BP’s US fuels strategy for years to come. The Whiting Refinery Modernisation Project (WRMP) saw the completion of commissioning of refinery units in December 2013, with all the major new units associated with the project successfully brought onstream.
The reconfigured refinery, located in the hub of a vast network of pipelines and railroads, can now process as much as 80% heavy crude oil from Canada, up from 20% in the past, and this new capability is expected to deliver $1 billion of operating cash flow per year, depending on market conditions.
“The Whiting Refinery Modernisation Project is a game changer for Whiting, essentially moving it to process mostly heavy-sour Canadian crude. And it’s going to shift our competitive position dramatically,” says Nick Spencer, vice president of refining.
I have never seen a crane like the one in the bottom picture. It looks like the cabling and smaller booms are actually split into two cabling paths? Is that accurate?
I remember some done in Texas.
http://www.turner-industries.com/Project-Profiles/BP-Whiting-Modernization
Louisiana
http://www.dynamicind.com/dynamic_industries_projects_modular_fab_and_assembly.html
I remember some work overseas as well. This was a massive project.
The numbers surrounding the WRMP are impressive, says Spencer: at the peak of activity, there were more than 10,000 contractors working at the site. Meanwhile, 610 kilometres (380 miles) of pipeline have been installed, 50,000 tonnes of steel used, 1,200 pieces of major equipment installed, and 600 shop-fabricated modules used.
Liberals could replace all of this with a few more windmills.
In the right configuration, 2,900 tons lifting capacity, but most arrangements of boom and reach are much smaller. Datasheet:
http://www.mammoet.com/Global/Homepage/Equipment/Cranes/Crawlercranes/Datasheet%20LR-13000.pdf
Looks like a new plant being built inside the old one.
There are some excellent Mammoet videos on Youtube.
“We basically built a new refinery inside an operating one” says Reggie Waddell, operations superintendent.
new 250,000 barrel-per-day crude distillation unit at the Whiting Refinery, new 105,000 barrel-per-day gasoil hydrotreater, a large 102,000 barrel-per-day coker and other associated units
I have seen one of those cranes at the Flint Hills Pine Bend refinery in Minnesota. The parts are barged in on the Mississippi, then trucked (WIDE LOAD!) up the 300 foot bluffs to the refinery and assembled at the lay down yard. Typically used for the FCC, also for replacing the coker drums.
Quoth my wife when I showed the the pictures.
“It must be a guy thing.”
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