SAL Heavy Lift’s team of MV Svenja has successfully installed an offshore development platform within the petroleum and gas exploitation area ‘Kitchen Lights Unit #3’ in Alaska’s Cook Inlet.

The installation of the platform was highly challenging. Its realisation marks an essential milestone towards the completion of the infrastructure of the largest development region in the Cook Inlet. Deutsche Oel & Gas AG shall there produce natural gas from the end of 2015 on.

For SAL Heavy Lift the installation of the offshore development platform in Alaska posed major technical and operational challenges. Before heading to Alaska the team of MV Svenja had required a time-constrained mobilisation in Singapore.

Extra living quarters were needed for the 60 supporting team members necessary to complete the project working and living on board for almost five months. Moreover, the specifics of the sea area set some challenging tasks for SAL Heavy Lift’s engineering department.

"For example, it was necessary to design and calculate special mooring arrangements for MV Svenja to fully comply with the US Jones Act and at the same time to guarantee an accurate positioning of the vessel in extremely strong tidal cur-rents and with small tidal windows to work in," explains Karsten Behrens, general manager engineering at SAL Heavy Lift.

Accurate performance. All tasks were mastered as per schedule and to the com-plete satisfaction of the customer. "SAL’s technical skills and operational experience lead to a very successful installation," states project manager Michael Johnson of Crowley Maritime Corporation, who had chartered MV Svenja for the operation.

Working with the tide. The new development platform consists of three main parts which had to be assembled. First the King Pole, which works as the central pole, had to be driven into the seabed by a large hydro hammer. In the next step the monopod was transported to MV Svenja by a barge and then lifted onto her deck for additional preparations. Subsequently the two 1,000t cranes of the MV Svenja lifted the monopod off the vessel again and lowered it accurately down to the seabed.

Afterwards, the topside, measuring 33m x 30m x 27m, was installed onto the monopod with a 700t single hook lift. "The topside installation was very tight and tide de-pendent. Only during high tide the installation window was open for about four hours," reported corporate director of engineering and ship management, Rüdiger Bauer.

After the completion of her pioneering task, SAL Heavy Lift’s MV Svenja has now returned to Singapore for demobilisation.