Roll Group will transport 24 modules for the Total Ethane cracker project in the USA.
The transport will cover seven single voyages, using both RollDock and BigRoll vessels. Roll-Lift will also play a part in the completion of the land transport aspects of the project. The first voyage is scheduled within the next two weeks. The other transports will be undertaken between April and August 2019. The modules are currently being built in Hamriyah (United Arab Emirates, UAE). After completion, Roll Group will roll the modules on board of its vessels for transportation to Port Arthur (USA).
From Fabrication Yard to Job Site
It is the first time that Roll Group will complete the transportation from the fabrication yard to the job site of such a large project – including the land transport, according to Wiebe Broeksma, Roll Group Project Manager. 'This was one of the reasons our client awarded the contract to us, since we have the ability to load and discharge the majority of the cargo directly from the quay onto our RollDock vessels and vice versa, due to the limited draft of our vessels.'
Module Carriers
Due to the size of the modules, BigRoll Module Carriers will be utilised on two voyages. Broeksma stated: 'When unloading the BigRoll vessels in Port Arthur, the intermediate transport will be arranged by our sister company Roll-Lift USA.'
Operational in 2020
The Roll Group project team has been involved in the Total Ethane cracker project since 2016. Total’s new cracker is scheduled to start up in 2020, and will have an ethylene production capacity of one million metric tons per year. It will be built alongside Total’s Port Arthur refinery and Total/BASF existing steam cracker.
