Offshore staff

HOUSTON --Energy Cranes manufacturing division in Houston has delivered the first ECR1200-R offshore crane to its rental division at Abbeville, Louisiana.

The ECR 1200-R goes directly from Houston to its first project on Chevron's SMI-99 platform at South Marsh Island in the GoM. This is the first of four assignments booked before the crane was built.

The ECR 1200-R crane has a modular lattice boom building to 18, 24, 31, or 37 m (60, 80, 100 or 120 ft) lengths and an off-board (dynamic) lift capacity of 50 metric tons (55 tons). Despite this lifting capacity, the heaviest crane component to be loaded onto the platform weighs less than 12 metric tons (13 tons).

"This performance makes the ECR 1200-R ideally suited to compressor change-outs and to construction projects such as installation of vessels or production skids," says Energy Cranes rental manager, Wayne Champagne.

"We plan to build further ECR 1200-Rs for our rental fleet, but we also have client interest in the non-modular variant, the EC 1200, for permanent installation on platforms and rigs," says Dave Cockburn, director of manufacturing.

4/26/2007