Engine Overhaul Aboard North Sea FPSO

Bluewater-owned offshore floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel Haewene Brim has undergone an engine overhaul at the hands of a team of diesel power specialist Royston Limited.

 

The 252m, 103,000dwt FPSO, powered by main generating sets consisting of four 5.2MW Wartsila W46 medium speed diesel engines, has operated in the Pierce Field in the UK sector of the North Sea since 1999 on behalf of Shell UK Exploration and Production, and last year was also linked to the Lundin-operated Brynhild field in the Norwegian sector.

 

Initially working alongside a Wartsila team, the scheduled 48,000 hour service on the first engine required the Royston engineers to completely dismantle the engine and overhaul the cylinder heads and liners, pistons, con rods, cam shafts and bearings.

 

The service and overhaul started earlier this year, but was halted when adverse weather conditions and 100mph winds caused the evacuation of noncritical personnel from the platform.

 

Damage to the crankshaft journal bearings was identified on resumption of the engine overhaul, requiring remedial machining work to be undertaken in-situ. Engineers remained on board to oversee and assist with this work and resumed the main engine service when the crankshaft was repaired.

 

Following the specialist repair of the crankshaft, Royston completed the main engine overhaul with full commissioning and a 100 percent load run.

 

On completion of the service on the first engine, Royston was appointed to carry out remedial work on another of the Haewene Brim’s engines, involving the replacement of the resilient mounts and realigning the engine to the generators.

 

The Haewene Brim was originally built at the Samsung yard in Korea as a multipurpose shuttle tanker and was converted to an FPSO at the Aker McNulty yard in Newcastle in 1998, ahead of deployment in the Pierce Field. To extend its field life, a water injection topsides module was added in September 2004.