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Jet Fire Seals Provide Life Saving Safety On Oil Rigs
Off the icy coast of Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East, stands an amazing
engineering feat that will provide crucial oil and gas to the growing economies
of Asia. A Trelleborg company, Viking, is supplying the platform with ‘jet-fire
seals’, which delay fire, giving the people on the rig time to evacuate.
Over a period of thirty years, it is estimated that the Sakhalin facility
will produce the equivalent of Russia’s total crude oil exports for more
than one year (1 billion barrels) and its total gas sales to Europe for five
years
(500 billion cubic meters).
To gain access to this bonanza, a consortium of companies, including Shell
and Mitsubishi, is investing billions of dollars in building offshore platforms
and
onshore processing plants along the east coast of Sakhalin.
Extracting the black gold is no easy task. “The fields are located in a
very difficult and challenging area: there is a high risk of earthquakes, temperatures
range from 39 degrees Celsius below freezing to a warm 28 degrees and, in winter,
pack ice comes crashing in,” explains Bjørnar Langelo, senior engineer
for safety and reliability at Aker Kværner, the Norwegian company in
charge of building the base structures for two offshore platforms.
“
We were dealing with a project 11 time zones away,” he explains. “With
staff from Russia, Norway, Finland and other countries, it was a great challenge
to coordinate the work and ensure accurate communications between all those
involved. But everyone struggled as a unified team to get everything done on
time.”
One major challenge for Aker Kværner was to protect the concrete structures,
as well as the pipes transporting the oil and gas from under the ocean floor,
from potential fires and explosions. This was a particular concern because of
the high level of seismic activity in the area, making earthquakes a potential
threat. “If a fire occurs on the platform, it could spread down into the
shaft and damage the structure,” says Langelo.
Likewise, “a gas leak on the platform could enter the shaft, blend with
oxygen in the air and cause an explosion.”
The answer is called jet-fire seals. The seals delay the fire, giving the
people on the rig time to evacuate.
This is where Trelleborg came in. Aker Kværner called on Trelleborg Viking
in Norway.
“
We knew from experience that Trelleborg Viking had useful ideas and a great deal
of goodwill,” says Langelo. “The company is known for being very
flexible and easy to cooperate with. It also had effective technical solutions
that met all the challenging requirements of this project.”
“
There was enormous pressure on Trelleborg Viking to get things done as deadlines
approached,” says Langelo. “But it managed to complete tasks faster
than we thought possible.”
“
This was Trelleborg Viking’s largest project to date,” says project
manager Merete Rønningen of the contract.
At its premises in Krokstadelva, 60 kilometers west of Oslo, the company
designed and produced 156 jet-fire seals, around 1 m high and 2.5 m wide. “The challenge
was to create a product that was resistant to fires and explosions, but also
sufficiently flexible,” adds Terje Fossesholm, manager of the offshore
projects department. “Usually, jet-fire seals are designed for small
movements, between 10mm and 50mm, but because of the earthquake risk at Sakhalin,
they had
to be able to withstand movements of 500-600 mm.”
The solution is a unique combination of reinforced, synthetic rubber – and
much hard work. “We hired extra employees and had people brought in from
Trelleborg plants in Singapore and Sweden,” explains Rønningen.
The team had just under a year and a half to complete the project, with deadlines
constantly being changed and brought forward.
Finally, between March and July, 12 Trelleborg employees traveled to Russia
to install the jet-fire seals on the concrete structures. The shafts are
now in
place on the ocean floor waiting to be connected to the platform.
Facts about the Sakhalin project:
•
Weather conditions are extreme, with temperatures plummeting to –39°C
or rising as high as +28°C.
• The area has a high level of seismic activity, making it prone to earthquakes.
• There is fog for most of the winter, often making it difficult to land
by helicopter on the platform.
• Once production is fully in progress, more than 200 employees will
work on the platforms.
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