Case Studies

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• 9

One of Intermarine’s chartered heavy lift vessels discharged in Guanta the largest columns for the mammoth refinery complex built in Jose, Venezuela. Manufactured and loaded at Changwon, Korea, the pieces consisted of numerous heavy lift and oversize components including a super heavy lift vacuum column.

The 982 metric ton column, in addition to being the highest capacity vacuum column in the world, is also the heaviest refinery vessel ever erected in South America. The longest piece was the crude column with more than 57 meters in length and a weight of 367 tons. A specialized heavy lift Ro/Ro (roll-on/roll-off) vessel was selected for this shipment and was completely utilized with the eleven different units. Literally months of engineering work was required to determine the support, seafastening, and handling requirements. In all, ninety-five tons of steel was consumed in just fabricating the grillages on which these units rested. The Ro/Ro loading of the vacuum column required 40 axle lines of self-propelled modular trailers (SPMTs).

Once in Venezuela, the vacuum column required 48 axle lines of SPMTs to roll it directly onto the barge Sophie J, a 300’ × 100’ offshore deck barge operated by an Intermarine affiliate. The rest of the pieces were rolled onto the pier and then onto the barge for onward movement from Guanta to Jose. All the pieces were delivered to the construction site utilizing SPMTs under contract to Intermarine. Finally, positioning the vacuum column required the use of three heavy lift cranes; a 1,200 ton Gottwald AK912 and a 800 ton Liebherr LR 1800 to lift the head of the column in tandem, while a 600 ton capacity Demag CC2800 was used for the tailing operation.