Norwegian Wood

Statoil’s (now Equinor) Mongstad refinery is located in the Hordaland region of Norway and is the country’s largest. The Mongstad facility, which has been operational since 1975, far exceeds the total operating consumption in Norway and around half goes for export.

Statoil decided that they would undertake their 2008 Residue Catalytic Cracking Unit (RCCU) Revamp without the support of a major EPC company. Their unique approach involved engaging directly with the subcontractors and managing the overall project themselves, with aid of specialist consultants. That’s where Techlift came in!

Techlift were contracted by Ledwood Mechanical Engineering, who was fabricating the replacement components, including a new regenerator head and internals, in South Wales.

We worked closely with both Ledwood and Statoil during the planning stages to develop an optimum schedule, including maximising pre-assembly work and sequencing operations to reduce the impact of simultaneous operations.

Techlift provided logistical assistance during the load-out of the components in South Wales and shipping to Norway, where they were offloaded and subassembled on purpose built temporary structures

The 1,350te capacity crawler crane was assembled on a purpose built raised foundation, with the 500te suspended counterweight tray sat on an engineered temporary support structure protecting high voltage underground cables.

Techlift provided on-site management and supervision of all lifting, rigging, strand jack and SPMT transport operations throughout the turnaround/revamp, which was successfully completed on time without incident.

Techlift’s scope of work included the following activities:
• Planning of all lifting and transport operations
• Oversite of heavy lift vessel load-out and load-in operations
• Focal point for coordination with Statoil base plant operations
• Management & supervision of all lifting, rigging and transport operations