ACE Winches has landed a spooling contract for Shell’s Prelude Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) project.
Oceaneering awarded the deal, which will be the first time ACE Winches’ newly developed 500te reel drive system is used.
Chief executive Alfie Cheyne said: “We are thrilled to be utilising our new 500te reel drive system for this contract with Oceaneering. As our clients projects continue to venture to even greater depths, we understand the need for this equipment to operate in harsh conditions and as a result, have developed it to ensure we are accommodating the ever growing needs of the oil and gas industry.”
The scope of work will see ACE Winches spool 4400m of umbilical, with a diameter of 229mm on to a 12.2m reel. The weight of the umbilical is the heaviest Oceaneering has ever spooled with a total weight of 426te.
ACE Winches modified its existing 400te reel drive system to meet the client’s specific requirements with an added base frame and packers to allow the 12.2m reel to be spooled on the quayside.
ACE Winches also supplied a total of 10 qualified commissioning engineers and technicians to assemble the ACE 500te reel drive system quayside, before operations started, with a further six operating technicians providing a 24 hour service to complete the first phase of spooling.
The patent pending 500te system consists of two towers that disassemble into eight modules for easy transportation. The towers use a slave and master configuration, with two gear boxes in each drive hub.
The Prelude FLNG will allow Shell to access offshore gas fields that would otherwise be too costly or difficult to develop. Prelude FLNG is the world’s first FLNG development.
Engineers worked more than 1.6 million hours during the engineering and design phase of the Prelude FLNG project.
The floating facility will chill natural gas produced at the field to –162°C (-260°F), shrinking its volume by 600 times so it can be shipped to customers in other parts of the world. Watch a highlights of the Prelude project here.