Tug and Barge - KG Flex

Henry Abram & Sons Ltd (HASL) were contracted by Sarens carry out a turnkey shipment of various petroleum production equipment from various ports in Europe to Grangemouth for onward transport to the site.

HASL were responsible for chartering the vessels, barge and tugs required to carry out the shipment. In addition to this HASL carried out all engineering tasks covering the shipments such as sea-fastening design, structural checks on barge/vessel and barge stability.

The most demanding of the engineering tasks were the pipe racks shipped from Tyneside. These were very tall items of cargo with relatively small bases, leading to large vertical forces, both down into the deck, and in uplift, trying to tip the units over.

This problem was solved by landing the cargo to plates to spread the load and in extreme cases load spreading boards were used to reduce the loads into the deck.

At all stages of the design HASL were responsible for meeting both the client and the appointed Warranty Surveyor requirements. This not only included design issues but also operational matters such as barge access and personnel protection.

Over the course of a few months, all the cargo was safely shipped to the discharge port without major incident.