MARITIME BY HOLLAND MARCH 2011 PAGE 016

1MARITIME BY HOLLAND MARCH 2011 PAGE 017

SHE climbs efficiently
along sea legs
© Reprinted from Maritime by Holland, No. 2, March 2011, www.maritimeholland.com. Publisher: Navingo BV, www.navingo.com

New equipment for maintenance of offshore platforms makes the job safer,
better done, protects the environment and saves money as the work can be done
much more efficient. Following first tests at the Keppel Verolme yard in 2009,
the systems are further engineered and now operate at the maintenance job of
jack–up rig GSF Magellan at the same yard.

The self-elevating working platforms of Palfinger
Systems go up and down along the towering
sea legs of jack-up rigs to get technicians to
their work spot. Workers of LSB Sky Access,
specialised at maintenance work for offshore
installations, are used to doing their work while
hanging onto a rope. Of course, welding or nut
wrenching is much more difficult when one is
hanging onto a rope, without solid support like
a working underground. Using the working
stations that Palfinger Systems developed,
technicians can get in virtually any position
along the rig to do their work, firmly standing
on a platform with a chest-high rail around it.
Safety, Health and Environment care (SHE)
get a serious upgrade in the new jack-up rig
maintenance program offered by co-operation
of LSB Sky Access and Palfinger Systems.
Keppel Verolme shipyard maintains an
extensive number of jack-up rigs for offshore
oil and gas drilling and production annually.
Replacing anodes on the towering sea legs of
the rigs is usually done by rope access. Building
scaffold platforms would take too much time,
while the legs, varying in length from 100
up to 160 metres, are too high to be reached
with a crane with a one-man working station
box at the end. If wind blows more then force
five on the Beaufort scale, rope access is no
longer considered safe and work will have
to be postponed. All in all, access to jack-
up rigs’ sea legs is a challenge for yards that
perform maintenance. Not to mention required
maintenance offshore.
Hubert Palfinger saw ongoing operations at
a rig leg during a visit to the Keppel Verolme
yard, with technicians getting to their work
spot by rope access. Representing the family
company, he was intrigued to come up with a
better solution for this work. The solution the
company provides makes use of the large ‘teeth’
on the rig legs, that are there for the gear of
the rig to lift or lower the legs. The rig electric
drives connect to these giant teeth to move up
and down along the legs. New jack-up rig leg
access systems comprise of JUMP (Jack-Up
Maintenance Platform), a platform that totally
surrounds the leg and of the RackCrane, a
smaller platform that folds around one corner of
the leg, as well as the Inspection Platform which
also uses the teeth on both ends of a flat side of
the leg. Depending on the required workscope
the JUMP or a Rackcrane can be configurated
with access baskets (working platforms) and
cranes.
All three systems are optimised for quick and
easy installation. The platforms come in one or
several 20 foot containers, depending on the
size of the platform. Parts are pre-assembled,
MARITIME BY HOLLAND MARCH 2011 PAGE 018
to be connected with large stainless steel pins,
fitting the rig legs and get grip on the mounting
teeth. As not all jack-up rigs have the same
configuration of the legs, different guide plates
and gears for the teeth are available. They can
be fitted to the platforms to fit specifications of
the rig. Legs are often triangular, but sometimes
square. Teeth to connect to the lifting gear are
sometimes on the outside of the legs, sometimes
on the inside. Once connected to electrical
power, the platforms move up and down on
their own force. Getting the maintenance
platform operational onto the rig takes only
hours, as opposed to days or even weeks of
building up scaffolds. Palfinger Systems also
developed the UPA: Under Platform Access for
maintenance at sea or at the yard, and the ITP:
the Internal Tank Platform for tasks that need
to be done in a tank’s interior. As rope access is
not possible under a platform or inside a tank,
doing maintenance at these locations always
demanded building a scaffold structure.
Yard operation planners indicate that flexibility
is probably the biggest asset of the jack-up rig
access systems. Moving up and down along the
rig’s legs, firmly standing on a working platform,
the maintenance technicians can inspect the
state of the structure. Not only will they be able
to do the scheduled job with greater ease and
precision, they can also easily indicate spots
and bars in the legs that need repair. When
indicated, these repairs can also be carried out
quickly from the same platform. This saves days
of planning for these extra tasks. During the
first operations with the platforms, it is too early
Safety, health and
environment care
improve when working
from a platform
to say whether the possibility to work faster
makes it possible to do the maintenance job on
a tighter budget, considering the extra cost of
renting the access platforms.
“At Palfinger Systems, we have initially developed
the offshore access systems in 2007 and 2008”,
says Michel van Wees, managing director sales
and marketing. “The line of working stations
aims to make necessary maintenance and repair
jobs much safer and easier done at sea or at the
yard. We notice growing demand from offshore
installation operators for maintenance and
repair, as the fleet of offshore rigs is getting of
age. We also noticed that operations for work
at the rigs have not essentially changed for the
last eighty years. When we asked them, yards
and rig owners confirmed their wish to have
a better access system. Not only have health
care demands changed the last eighty years,
especially environmental regulations have put
restrictions on the way work can be done on
such gigantic offshore rigs.” JUMP surrounds
the rig legs, and can be closed off when a tent
(enclosure) is set up around it. This makes
waterjetting (HPU) and painting possible,
where the work is protected from the elements,
while the environment is protected from dust
and paint. When working at the yard, work at
other parts of the rig can continue as there is no
need for a safety drop zone when work is done
in the enclosed JUMP.
“Palfinger Systems manufactures innovative
access systems”, Van Wees emphasises. “We
do not want to do maintenance jobs ourselves,
we have our equipment available for partners
like LSB Sky Access to work with it. Palfinger
Systems is the more innovative company,
searching for new solutions and investing
in research and development. This company
derives from Palfinger, who produce mostly
MARITIME BY HOLLAND MARCH 2011 PAGE 019
cranes for trucks and marine. Apart from LSB
in the Netherlands, we are negotiating with
offshore service providers in Aberdeen, USA
and Singapore. We do believe these systems
will mark the next step in offshore maintenance
and repair, and are actively seeking partners to
start working with them worldwide. We need
good partners that understand the potential
of our equipment and are willing to make a
A landmark change
in offshore maintenance
and repair
change. Although very difficult in the oil- and
repair industry good project management
and planning has become very important. We
believe that well trained people will optimize
the safety and the efficiency and therefore want
to focus on a few strategic partners.”
LSB Sky Access manager Ronny van Baal is
enthusiastic about the rig access systems. “Our
co-operation with Palfinger Systems started
when they ran a test with the first JUMP at
one of the legs of jack-up rig GSF Monarch in
2009. At the same time, we were working on the
other legs, replacing anodes, with rope access
like we always have done. We reckoned: as they
are testing JUMP, why don’t we test how it is to
work on it? Here, our partnership started. Now
we are working with the access systems in a fully
operational setting. We provide the craftsmen
that replace anodes and that do measurements
to monitor the state of the steel piping of the
legs. Palfinger Systems delivers the tools we use
to get to the elevated working spots.”
Working with these platforms instead of
hanging on a rope can save a lot of time on the
job and thus save cost, Van Baal claims. “With
these access platforms, we work in teams of four
technicians. In one hour, they can replace six
anodes. When working with rope access, we
usually work in teams of three. In a twelve hour
shift, these three men replace ten anodes. 36
hours of paid work here results in ten replaced
anodes. Working from the moving platforms,
36 hours result in 54 anodes replaced. Speeding
up the process five times should easily earn back
the cost of platform rental.”