Eurogrit Supplies Blast Cleaning Abrasives for Gryphon A FPSO

In June 2011 the Gryphon A FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading unit) from A.P. Moller-Group in Copenhagen arrived at Damen Shipyards in Schiedam. The vessel suffered heavy storm damage in February 2011 at its anchorage place at the Gryphon Terminal (on the border of the English and the Norwegian part of the North Sea). The vessel had been in operation there since 1993.

The vessel was built in Ferrol (Spain) in 1993 and is 258m x 41m. It sails under the flag of the Isle of Man with registration port Douglas, GT 66830 en Dwt 94032.

The vessel was repaired at Damen Shiprepair in Schiedam and received a complete overhaul. As part of the work, the ballast and storage tanks were blast cleaned and coated.

This part of the project was carried out by Spanish contractor Indasa. Eurogrit supplied the blast cleaning abrasives for this project. In cooperation with transport company De Bruyn, three large storage silos were placed inside the dock, each with a capacity of more than 50t of abrasive ensuring availablilty of blasting grit at the shipyard at all times.

On 29 May this year Maersk announced that the Gryphon FPSO was back in production, adding: "Once all the associated fields are fully operational over the coming months, production will ramp up in excess of 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (boepd). Production from Gryphon is expected to continue for the next decade."