For a large petrochemical project, deugro Japan, in collaboration with the local teams of deugro USA, delivered a wide range of oversized and heavy lift (OSHL) components. The cargo, including nearly 530 TEU and over 50 metric tons of airfreight, was transported from over 20 global seaports and airports to the project site in Texas, USA.
The massive OSHL units were picked up in 14 different countries around the globe and shipped to Port Arthur in Texas, USA for final on-carriage to the project site by barge and truck. Cargo pick-up as well as vessel loading, stowing and load securing operations at the various loading ports were coordinated by deugro Tokyo acting as project control tower. Altogether, 10 heavy lift vessels were fully or partly chartered for the ocean voyages in collaboration with deugro’s own Chartering department.
“One of the full-charter vessels, which was booked for a shipment from Korea nearly one year prior to the shipment, missed the agreed laycan due to the effects of the Red Sea crisis. However, thanks to our strategic partnerships with the carriers, we were able to find and charter another heavy lift vessel with the required capacity one month prior to laycan. This enabled us to prevent significant project delays and extra costs for the client and the project owner,” said Haruka Somura, General Manager at deugro Japan.
After arrival at Port Arthur, the majority of the components were directly transloaded from the vessels onto various deck barges. The most challenging cargo units transported were an over 540-metric-ton C2 splitter with a volume of 68.60 x 9.76 x 9.97 meters and a 375-metric-ton, over 54-meter-long caustic tower. To safely and efficiently accommodate the respective sizes, weights and individual characteristics of the components, various-sized barges were arranged for by deugro Houston.
“Due to the extreme barge shortage in the market, combined with several vessels arriving at the same time at the discharge port, deugro developed a plan to reuse and efficiently turn around some of the hired barge assets. This was particularly challenging and had to be meticulously designed since any delays caused, for instance, by weather or congestion could have potentially delayed the vessel operations with significant additional costs as a consequence,” said Gert Jensen, Senior Vice President, Operations, at deugro USA.
The safe and efficient loading, stowing and securing of the massive cargo units for their 17.5-nautical-mile inland voyage to the Marine Offloading Facility (MOF) near the construction site required sophisticated transport engineering measures. On deugro’s behalf, these were designed by the marine engineering experts from dteq Transport Engineering Solutions (dteq).
“Given the nature of the design of various cargo items, we had to analyze the structural integrity of the barge and locate all load spreading accordingly. We then executed this design in the field and prepared the barges to make them ready to receive all the cargo from the heavy lift vessel,” said Franklin Alvarez, Regional Director Transport Engineering Americas at dteq.
“Having multiple vessels operating at the same time, while working as efficiently as possible with the equipment on hand, posed a challenge. Detailed planning for the sequencing of the main heavy lift items was crucial, as we had a limited number of barges available to us and had to efficiently reuse them. We had to time the lift operations of each item with the completion of the roll-off operations and return the specific barge on time for loading additional items,” added Franklin Alvarez, Regional Director Transport Engineering Americas at dteq.
Upon arrival at the MOF, the individual cargo units were picked up by various self-propelled modular transporter (SPMT) configurations and rolled off the barges via a newly constructed dock. After altogether 17 barge voyages, all international and domestic cargo was successfully delivered.
“The overall project scope, with its considerable number of challenging OSHL cargo components, interfaces, vessel and barge voyages, overland trips and transloading operations, in conjunction with the strict delivery sequences of the construction site, required meticulous preparation, proactive coordination and closest communication between all parties involved. All this as well as the full support of the client, project owner and all subcontractors were the keys to successful project delivery,” said Gert Jensen, Senior Vice President, Operations, at deugro USA.
