A&P to Drydock FPSO

A&P Tyne’s number 5 dock at Hebburn on Tyneside will shortly accommodate one of the largest vessels to be docked on the River Tyne in recent years. The Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel Haewene Brim will visit in the Summer for a 35day upgrading to its process plant and hull maintenance period refit. Work is already well in hand in the fabrication and assembly of the new process modules for the vessel. The vessel upgrading is being carried out in a partnership between A&P Tyne Ltd. and McNulty Offshore Contractors Ltd. of South Shields who are the prime contractor.

Bluewater are the vessels owner and operator, Haewene Brim is currently on charter to Shell UK on the Pierce field in the North Sea.

A&P Tyne’s Managing Director Fred Newman said, “We are absolutely delighted to welcome the Bluewater and Shell UK team to Tyneside. The dry-docking of this vessel gives us an opportunity to demonstrate to the North Sea oil industry operators that the combined strengths of the marine and offshore companies in the North East of England can offer competitive engineering solutions. The award of this project clearly proves that we can provide a total maintenance solution to the industry on this type of complex floating facility”.

The planned scope of work involved in the upgrading and dry-docking of Haewene Brim is as follows:

· Fabrication of 300 tonnes of module steelwork.

· Addition of Water injection, chemical and filtration skids to the process plant on deck.

· Dry-docking & marine systems upgrade various marine systems;

· Assisting McNulty Contractors Ltd. in the assembly, installation and commissioning of modules.

· Hull blasting and painting.

· Tank blasting & painting This is not the first visit to the Tyne for the vessel she was in fact originally converted at the Hebburn facility from the Multi Service Tanker (MST) Berge Hugin for use the BP Pierce field in 1998. The Hebburn dry-dock is the only facility in the UK and one of only three in Europe specially adapted to accommodate operational FPSO’s of this size.