Standardized design process helps Emtunga win Cakerawala award
Statoil's Åsgard B platform complete with Emtunga accommodation platform.
Emtunga has a solid track record as a supplier of accommodation modules to operators in the North Sea, and over the past several years has maintained more than 50% share of this market. However, as Klas Wallin, Emtunga's Marketing Director, explains, this will not ensure the company's continuing prosperity.
"There have been no new large living quarter projects in the North Sea over the past 24 months. We finished a 1,700-ton module for Statoil's new
"There are two or three jobs in the pipeline in the Norwegian sector - Esso Ringhorn, Norsk Hydro Grane and Statoil Kvitebjorn - and BP is still trying to find a way of developing Clair to the west of Shetland. But clearly our long-term future does not lie in the North Sea. We have to look further afield."
Procurement savings
Inside the Arendal facility - living quarters for the Jotun platform are almost complete.
Over the years, Emtunga has placed a strong emphasis on standardization. By using largely the same cabin layouts, materials, and components, significant savings in procurement and fabrication are possible. The policy has also allowed Emtunga to build a consistent and extensive performance database, thus enabling the company continually to optimize design and manufacture of its products.
The company has also worked to reduce the weight of its accommodation modules and has pioneered an integrated construction method whereby the corrugated steel walls of the accommodation module provide structural properties and also blast protection - traditionally, accommodation units have been fabricated using a truss frame with separate cabin units and added blast protection. The company has used 3D CAD supplemented with finite element analysis to prove the integrity of the units which weigh about 400 kg/sq meters of floor area as against the 500-600 kg/sq meters of normal units.
Emtunga's emphasis on standardization paid off recently when it was asked to quote for the accommodation module for the Cakerawala gas platform being built by Samsung in Korea for the Cariga* Triton Operating Company - Cakerawala is situated in the Joint Malay-Thai development area. Wallin conceded he was not initially optimistic of winning the contract against Far Eastern competition. "We bid the work as specified, but in view of Samsung's extremely tight delivery requirement we submitted a second bid based largely on pre-designed standard units. We demonstrated that the option did not compromise functionality, performance, or quality in any way."
Emtunga's standard solution, with a price tag of around US$10 million, was accepted. The 1,000-ton accommodation module, made up of 60 double cabins, will be built in Sweden at the company's Vara and Arendal sites. The module will become part of a 14,000-ton topsides which will be installed using the float-over method.
Fast-track by pre-design
By any standards, the project is very fast-track. The module was awarded in May, and must be ready for delivery by the end of February 2001 in order not to miss a Saipem transport barge already booked to make the trip at that time. Emtunga's previous fastest build was an 850-ton module in roughly the same time. However, Wallin is confident of making the schedule on the basis that the overall design was roughly 50% complete before the contract started, allowing procurement to go ahead immediately.
The Cakerawala win has given Emtunga great encouragement that it can compete seriously on a global basis. The company admits that work won overseas has so far come largely from one or two long-time customers. For example, a relationship with Bouygues Offshore has resulted in the company supplying modules to West Africa. This is a market that Emtunga would like to develop. Wallin pointed out that the company has a shorter shipping route to West Africa than its main competitors, seen by Wallin as yards in the USA.
The company recently supplied a technical module for the Elf Girassol FPSO and it is short-listed for TotalFinaElf's Amenam/Kpono project in Nigeria - the requirement here is for both accommodation and utility modules.
For more information contact Klas Wallin, Emtunga. Tel: +46 512 16400, Fax: +46 512 12962, E-mail: klas.wallin@ emtunga.com
