Preparation and Supervision of Tank Lifting & Transport on land and water

The SJR Group contracted Eager.one for review, release and approval of tank lifting and transport documents. Two complete tanks, constructed by SJR, had to be transported over water to Gunvor Petroleum Rotterdam in the Netherlands. After transport the tanks had to be installed at the Gunvor Petroleum site. During the actual lifting and transport activities, one of our lifting and transport specialists was present onsite as an active team member.

Our activities included:

• Prepare and execute the project with maximum safety and minimum lost time/extra costs;
• Third party review in the engineering phase to combine site specific regulations, legislation, local/international standards and common practice, into practical solutions throughout all transport and lifting documents;
• Own experienced specialists to perform and request extra checks. These checks could be on i.e. lifting points, load integrity, load bearing capacity of the transport road and crane locations (soil investigation) and SPMT transport strength/stability;
• A point of contact in the field to communicate and approve any changes during execution, in close cooperation with all parties involved. These changes occurred due to varying circumstances, i.e. weather, weight of the load, rigging, crane/SPMT setup.

About the project:

Both tanks have a diameter of 21m, a height of 17m and a weight of 140t. For the lifting of the tanks a rigging arrangement was assembled, consisting of a 13m by 13m spreader frame and four 8m-spreaders.

The lifting, land/water transport and installation activities were done in close cooperation with Gunvor Petroleum, SJR Group, Peinemann, HEBO Maritiemservice and Bonn & Mees. Mammoet was responsible for the tank transport with SPMTs on the Gunvor site.

The method for load-out and water transport was different for both tanks. Load-out of the first tank from the SJR quay was done by the HEBO-Lift 9. Next, the tank was placed onto a barge that was sailed to the Gunvor site. The load-out of the second tank was deployed by the Matador 3 floating sheer leg of Bonn & Mees. After load-out the Matador 3 sailed directly with the tank as suspended load in its hooks to Gunvor.

During load-in at the Gunvor quay, each tank was placed onto temporary supports with load spreaders. Subsequently the tank was picked up with the double SPMTs of Mammoet, with a total of 24 axle lines, for onsite transport.

After arrival at the installation locations, a tandem lift with two mobile telescope cranes (Liebherr LTM1750-9.1 and Liebherr LTM1450-8.1) of Peinemann was executed to lift the tanks from the SPMTs and install them onto their final locations.