December 12 - Fairmount Marine's powerful tug Fairmount Expedition has safely delivered a 18,000 ton (16,329 tonnes) topside for process, utilities and living quarters for the Castor project offshore Spain. The topside was loaded onto Heerema's H-541 barg
The Castor project is a 1.3 billion cu m submarine gas storage project at a depth of 1,800 m, 12 miles (19.3 km) offshore Valencia on the east coast of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea. The topside was built in Corpus Christi, USA.
Fairmount Marine was hired for the towage across the North Atlantic by Heerema Marine Contractors. First,Fairmount Expedition had to mobilise the barge, H-541, from Flushing, the Netherlands.
On arrival of tug and tow in Corpus Christi, the topside was loaded onto the barge, and prepared for towage across the North Atlantic.
Meanwhile, Heerema Marine Contractors crane vessel Thialf wasbrought into position in the Castor field to install the topside which was being delivered by Fairmount Expedition. Fairmount Expedition maintained stand-by in the Castor field. Once the topside was unloaded from the barge, Fairmount Expedition commenced demobilisation.
The total 12,068 mile (19,421 km) voyage from (Flushing, the Netherlands, to Corpus Christi, USA, then Tarragona, Spain) took just 50 days, with a just in timedelivery of the topside by Fairmount Expedition.
Fairmount Marine is a marine contractor for ocean towage and heavy lift transportation, headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Fairmount's fleet of tugs consists of five modern super tugs of 205 tons (185.9 tonnes) bollard pull each, especially designed for long distance towing. Fairmount Marine is part of Louis Dreyfus Armateurs Group.
