Lankhorst Euronete Portugal (LEP) has completed the engineering, design, fabrication and delivery of the deepwater mooring rope for the Shell Appomattox project.
At over 63,000 meters, it is the longest ever rope meterage for a single deepwater mooring contract.
The Shell Appomattox facility will be a four-column semi-submersible production platform moored using 16 mooring lines arranged in 4×4 clusters, in 2,255 meters of water approximately 130 kilometers offshore Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico.
Lankhorst is supplying 78 rope lengths totaling over 63,000 meters of Lankhorst’s Gama 98 polyester deepwater mooring rope with minimum breaking strength of 21,545 kN.
The Gama 98 ropes were manufactured at Lankhorst’s factory in Viana do Castelo, Portugal.
According to Lankhorst, a significant amount of preparation was required before production of the ropes could begin including design and installation of new equipment to handle the size and payload of the ropes. In addition, a period of prototype rope testing was conducted to verify and prove the rope design.
The project involved a number of industry and Lankhorst firsts. These included: the first time two mooring ropes have been packed on a single reel, the largest reels ever handled (6m dia. x 6.8m traverse), and the heaviest reels ever handled (approximately 120 Tonnes). A total of 78 ropes of 273mm diameter were manufactured in lengths of 304, 762 and 914m.
“Our ability to successfully complete this most challenging project reinforces Lankhorst’s position as the global leader in deepwater mooring,” said Neil Schulz , sales director, Lankhorst Ropes Offshore. “By combining our technical expertise with the industry’s leading rope engineering and production capability, we’ve been able to meet the most demanding requirements for this showcase project.”