By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Sept. 29 -- Zaafarana Oil Co. maintained oil production from Zaafarana field in the Gulf of Suez off Egypt during a recent on-station repair to the field's 120,000 dwt Al Zaafarana floating production, storage, and offloading vessel (OGJ Online, Nov. 15, 2001).
Intelligent Engineering Ltd. of the UK and partner-licensee Keppel Shipyard, a wholly owned subsidiary of Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd., Singapore, completed the repair of a cargo storage unit aboard the vessel in early September. Conducting repairs on site enabled FPSO owner-operator Prosafe Production Inc. to avoid field shutdown and FPSO relocation for yard-based repairs.
The repair involved reinstating 191 sq m of the lower strakes of two longitudinal bulkheads in a 36-year-old oil cargo tank that had corroded below Det Norske Veritas's offshore standards allowance.
Repair work schedules were complex due to frequent offloading from the Al Zaafarana, which has the capacity to process about 30,000 b/d of heavy crude, said Denis Welch, director of the "SPS overlay" technology used in the repair.
