Drydocks Wins Innovative Solution Award for Solan Subsea Tank

Drydocks World and Maritime World has received the “Innovative solution” Award at the distribution of “International Business Excellence Awards” ceremony, for the construction of subsea oil storage tank “Solan”.

Drydocks World began working on subsea oil storage tank “Solan” in 2013 and delivered the project in 2014. Solan accommodates more than 400,000 barrels of oil under the sea. The idea behind the construction of this huge tank was to reduce the extended pipelines under the sea to transfer oil, and therefore reducing the negative impact on the environment to a large extent, with the oil transferred directly from the tank to the oil tanker, the company explained.

In cooperation with the client Premier Oil, Drydocks World constructed the largest and deepest subsea oil storage tank comprised of a 45m x 45m x 25m structural tank weighing approximately 10,150 tonnes in eight mega blocks, connected with pile sleeves and mud mats.

The Solan tank was floated over onto a heavy lift transportation vessel and was successfully installed in a water depth of 130m. The tank now resides under the sea in the Scottish Shetland Islands. The company’s achievements on this project included lifting a 7,170 tonne structure, skidding the facility from the General Assembly Area to the dry docking area for load out and installing a 895 tonne block on the tank using the shipyard’s floating crane, Drydocks World wrote in a press release.

The facility has four quadrants with watertight bulk heads and eight pile sleeves with mud mats. The weight of piping installed as part of the facility is 171 tonnes which comprised ballast, displacement, oil inlet and outlet piping systems. A number of piping materials were used including super duplex and carbon steel.

Other systems installed as integral parts of the facility include the Temporary Level Monitoring (TLMS), Permanent Level Measurement (PMS) and Corrosion Protection  Monitoring (CPMS) systems.