Case Study No. 023Shell’s EA Exploration Ship FPSO

Nigeria

Installed by: AL SWISS Insulation Co.(UAE, Sharjah)Cape Industrial Services Ltd. (UK)Sembawang Shipyard (Singapore)

Year of Installation: 2001

Project:To explore the oil field EA off the Nigerian coast, Shellconstructed a floating production, storage and offloadingvessel (FPSO). Since July 2001 the EA FPSO produces120 000 barrels of oil (almost 2 million liters) and 100million m³ of natural gas daily.

Installation:The British planners Kellog, Brown & Root specifiedArmaflex for the insulation of pipes and tanks in variousareas of the FPSO. When constructing the vessel inSingapore, for example, about 8 200 m² HT/- andNH/Armaflex sheets and 300 m tubes were used. The high-temperature insulation material was also used to insulatethe process pipework which regulates the glycol supply.The systems were built by the company FRAMES in theNetherlands and transported from there to Dubai, wherethe Dubai insulation company AL SWISS insulated pipeswith a maximum temperature of up to + 150 ° C withapprox. 250 m² of HT/Armaflex.The process systems for purifying the crude oil and naturalgas were supplied by Jordan Kent Metering Systems fromGloucestershire (UK). Here the halogen-free materialNH/Armaflex was used to insulate pipes and fittings.NH/Armaflex is produced without adding chlorides andbromides (i.e. without halogens). This means that in thecase of fire toxic problems can be ruled out to the greatestpossible extent. The product is self-extinguishing, does notdrip and does not support progressive flaming. Anotherremarkable feature of this insulation material is itsextremely low smoke density in a fire. Approximately 600m² of Armaflex were installed by insulators from CapeIndustrial Services, the renowned, globally-operatingspecialists for industrial plant, after they had receivedintensive training from one of Armacell’s applicationsspecialist.