Jumbo Offshore has completed the first phase of work at Energean’s Karish offshore gas field in Israel.
TechnipFMC contracted Jumbo to oversee the transport and installation of 14 suction piles forming a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) mooring system, in addition to a tie-in manifold and a 24 inch (61 cm) deepwater gas sales spool.
Jumbo deployed its offshore construction vessel Fairplayer for the project. 13 of the suction piles weighed 176 tonnes, and one weighed 235 tonnes. The deck layout and the two 900-tonne capacity cranes on Fairplayer were reconfigured to facilitate the operation; this included modifications to the deepwater winches to allow for installation work to be completed at a depth of 1,760 m.
Joost van der Wiel, lead project engineer at Jumbo, said that the installation of the heaviest suction pile was particularly challenging. The operation required the pile to be first taken down to a depth of 200 m, where it was hung off a Dyneema pennant.
Wiel said: “We then recovered the hook, reconfigured the crane, picked up the pile from the pennant and began the second lift down to 1,760 m deep, that’s a record for us.”
Speaking of the installation of the gas sales spool, Wieteke Looijschelder, Jumbo project manager, said: “The gas sales spool is a flexible piece of equipment, so lifting and lowering it called for a dual lift with a complex rigging arrangement.”
Jumbo’s work at this project is scheduled to recommence this year with the hook-up and installation of the FPSO – the first of its kind to operate in the Mediterranean, said Jumbo.
