Crane fleet late life study

Benefits

• Extended life without compromising safety or integrity
• Specialist engineering advice to ensure the most cost-effective, reliable solution was identified
• Adequate crane coverage to serve each platform through to the cessation of production and decommissioning

Challenge

Our client asked us to carry out a late-life study on a total of 78 platform cranes across their entire fleet that serviced four fields located off the coast of Dubai, with a view to ensuring integrity for a 25-year life extension. The study was to follow requirements from the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Offshore Technology Report 2001/088: ‘Beyond life criteria for offshore crane’.

The client believed, based on the current service of almost every crane being close to or beyond design life, that all would most likely need to be replaced and they required an independent evaluation of condition along with costs for replacement equipment and a change out methodology.

The main challenge of this project was to determine the most economical solution that ensured the integrity of lifting operations for the remaining life of the assets.

Solution

We carried out a comprehensive review of the entire fleet of cranes, focussing on the following key areas:

• Original design specification
• Incident history
• History of modifications
• Inspection and maintenance records
• Fault analysis.

Data gathered was used to evaluate the most suitable solution for each crane and they were categorised as follows:

• Replace for new
• Upgrade to extend life
• Maintain with current maintenance strategy.

We issued a report recommending the following which was well received and used by the client to form a key part of their field life strategy:

• Replace nine cranes
• Upgrade 44 cranes
• Minor upgrade on 17 cranes
• Continue service with no modifications on eight cranes.

Summary

• Project management
• Provision of subject matter experts