InterMoor’s Morgan City yard to build offshore mooring system

 

By ZACHARY FITZGERALD

InterMoor won a contract with LLOG Exploration to anchor its Delta House floating production system in the Gulf of Mexico with fabrication taking place at its Morgan City facility, and the project will require 30 of InterMoor’s full-time welders and another 15 to 20 contract workers, according to company officials.

The contract is to design, fabricate and install 12 suction pile anchors, to install 12 pre-set chain/ polyester/ chain mooring lines, and hook-up the LLOG Exploration Delta House production semi-submersible floating production system, according to an InterMoor news release. 

Company officials did not release the dollar amount of the contract. 

Fabrication of the 12 suction piles for the LLOG Exploration Delta House will take place at InterMoor’s 30,000 square-feet facility in Morgan City. The 12 piles will be 85 feet long and 16 feet in diameter weighing about 150 metric tons each. The piles are designed to be used as permanent anchors for the project, the release stated.

The site includes two fabrication buildings with engineering and design capabilities. The Morgan City facility employs 163 people.

LLOG Exploration is an oil and gas exploration company. The installation work will take place in the Mississippi Canyon 254 block of the Gulf of Mexico. Installation is planned for mid-2014, the release stated.

 “This project will add to InterMoor’s already strong track record for permanent moorings which includes some of the largest deepwater mooring projects around the world, including Kikeh, Shell Auger, ATP Mirage and the Williams Gulfstar FPS (Floating Production System),” InterMoor President Tom Fulton said in the news release.

Dave Shilling, business development manager for InterMoor in Morgan City, said InterMoor will do all the engineering for the piles. “Then we’ll build them here at our Morgan City facility. Then we’ll load them on a barge and drop them off and install them,” Shilling said. 

Engineering for the project is being done in Houston.

InterMoor workers will go out to the field where LLOG Exploration is going to drill and install the suction piles, Shilling said. When the top side of the floating production system is finished being built, the system will be floated in, and InterMoor workers will hook up the anchors with chain and cables, Shilling said. The project will last about a year, he said.

Delta House will be anchored in 4,500 feet of water and is LLOG Exploration’s second Exmar-designed Opti deep-draft, semi-submersible production system in the region, according to the release.

 “Our approach to the award process involved paying close attention to the client’s needs — which included comprehensive engineering, design, fabrication and installation procedures and plans — and preparing a detailed proposal that broke out each phase of the work scope,” Fulton said in the news release.