Offshore staff

MARLOW, UK – FoundOcean has won an offshore grouting contract for the North Rankin B platform installation offshore Western Australia through Heerema Marine Contractors Australia Pty Ltd.

According to FoundOcean, the North Rankin B jacket is to be secured to the seabed by 16 primary piles arranged in clusters of four at each of the four corner legs of the jacket. The primary piles are to be driven through jacket pile sleeves. Connection between the primary piles and the sleeves will be achieved by placing grout into the pile/sleeve annulus.

The jacket will stand 150 m (492 ft) tall in approximately 125 m (410 ft) of water. The piles will be inserted to a depth of 306 m (1,004 ft) below sea level into a drilled hole 182 m (597 ft) deep and 2.5 m (8 ft) in diameter.

The grouting operation is likely to start in August 2011 and will take approximately two months to complete.

“The seabed in Western Australia is particularly complex which means that the foundations will need to be drilled,” says Jim Bell, managing director at FoundOcean. “The piles will be inserted into pre-drilled holes 182 m below the sea bed and then grout will be pumped into these sockets to secure the platform to the seabed.”

09/29/2010