Fugro's Skandi Carla plays integral role in Burullus Sapphire Field 1st Gas Delivery

On 8th September 2005, operations onboard Fugro Survey Ltd's Construction Support vessel, Skandi Carla, enabled ''Egyptian LNG Train 2'' gas production to commence. Synchronising operations of its two Triton XL Work Class ROV's, the sub sea valves were turned, sending the first gas from Egypt's Sapphire gas field ashore.

Sapphire start-up operations were carried out in over 300m water depth and involved ROV hot stabs and the application of torque tool equipment. This start-up is ahead of schedule and follows on from the Simian First Gas achieved with Skandi Carla's integral involvement in March 2005. Throughout the year-long campaign on the Simian and Sapphire Fields, Skandi Carla's two Triton XL WROV's performed over 1100 project ROV dives in water depths ranging from 20m at the inshore section to over 1000m at the nearby Simian Field location.

The moonpool-deployed ROV (TXL27) and the over-the-side deployed ROV (TXL22) successfully completed over 730 and 450 dives respectively. Performance of the vehicles has been excellent. Minimal downtime was incurred. Many of the subsea intervention tasks required simultaneous ROV operations which, coupled with the complex nature and deep-water environment, made for an extremely challenging and demanding workscope. Fugro Survey Ltd. worked closely with Technip, onboard Skandi Carla, to perform the deepwater flooding, pigging and hydrotesting operations. These operations included Remote Flooding Module (RFM) tasks that formed part of the overall subsea commissioning programme. In addition to the ROV intervention tasks undertaken, the Skandi Carla's heave compensated crane was used to deploy the pig launcher and receiver heads in over 1000m water depth. These lifts weighed over 35 tonnes each.

The vessel's 620m2 deck area and 5t/m2 deck loading capacity were fully utilised with a wide variety of equipment for subsea deployment. The additional mezzanine decks provided valuable extra space.

Fugro Survey Ltd's Survey Construction Manager, Grant Aitchison says: ''We are pleased and proud of our involvement in this complex deepwater project. The wide variety of construction support and ROV intervention tasks undertaken proves the versatility and capability of the Skandi Carla in construction support mode. Working in what is still essentially a remote offshore location meant our personnel and logistics support had to be excellent to meet the demands of our client. We are all looking forward to the vessel's next challenge''