Fischcon has been awarded the contract to deliver the high capacity diesel driven fire extinguishing pump systems on board Shell's Prelude project, the largest Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) facility ever built. Fischcon delivered these critical components in mid-January 2013.
Fully Redundant
The complex vessel is under construction at high-tech offshore vessel builder Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea – one of the few yards in the world big enough to construct a facility of this size. Due to the FLNG facility's unique engineering and large gas installations and storage, Fischcon cooperated intensively with the designers and Samsung Heavy Industries' Geoje Shipyard to ensure the extinguisher pumps met the highest safety and reliability standards.
"Fire extinguishing is one of the most crucial and critical parts of the vessel," explains Fischcon Project Manager Fred Hordijk. "The system ensures that fires can be extinguished at any point on board. Seawater is pumped through loop piping around the entire vessel. Our pumps lead seawater to the loop and a number of standard electric motor drive pumps maintain the water pressure. As these pumps have limited capacity, in the event of a significant fire one of our pumps will start automatically. A second Fischcon pump serves as a full back-up – ensuring a fully-redundant installation of the complete fire extinguishing system. In addition, our pumps are diesel-hydraulic drives, so that they will keep doing their job in the event of a main board blackout."
Flawless delivery
With all eyes in the offshore industry focused on the construction of the prestigious floating gas facility, Fischcon's client demands a faultless and smooth delivery. "That meant constant working with the client," Fred explains. "We put every effort into this project, working to the client's high specifications for a 'flawless project delivery'."
With that in mind, Fischcon's Project Support Engineer Bas Prinssen and four colleagues travelled to Korea for a workshop at the yard. "We spent three days in Korea at the yard," Bas says. "An interesting experience, for its size (25,000 workers) and exterior alone. I have never seen such a colourful appearance. All the buildings are painted with flowers and colours. Very different to our grey, industrial yards. This first workshop was aimed primarily at defining the quality standards. The next stage was going through the whole commissioning process step-by-step, and we conducted a detailed risk analysis. We started putting together the procedures and protocols necessary to avoid problems. Not to mention we also tackled the use and finishing of materials that must handle conditions at sea."
Intensive risk management
Over 1.6 million manhours were worked during the Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) phase for developing the Prelude FLNG concept. Before delivery of the fire extinguishing pump systems in mid-January 2013, Fischcon was closely involved with the client during the necessary brainstorming sessions, workshops and site visits. In that context, Fred visited South Korea every month to attend progress meetings and recently travelled to Paris with two colleagues for the HAZOP meeting (Hazard & Operability). All imaginable risks and possible consequences in case of e.g. incorrect handling of the equipment have been carefully documented. A range of tests will be carried out during the FAT to confirm the expected outcome of the HAZOP procedures.
Taking into account all the checklists, pre-inspection meetings and quality audits, it has proven to be a unique and prestigious project in which Fischcon has again demonstrated its international expertise and in-house capabilities.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited. Add Seatrade Maritime News to your Google News feed.
