Ain Sukhna Product Hub

Un hub énergétique de premier ordre

La joint-venture BESIX-Orascom a construit l’Ain Sukhna Product Hub, une jetée de 3 km en forme de « F ». Cette installation située dans le Golfe de Suez revêt une importance stratégique majeure pour la région. Notre département Engineering a rapidement constitué sa plus grande équipe de conception de travaux maritimes pour lancer l’étude technique complexe de ce projet.

Fast track project

BESIX’s pride jack-up barges, along with other equipment from our fleet as well as externally rented equipment, were mobilized quickly from Saudi Arabia and our Marine Base in Ajman (UAE). They progressed with driving of the first of the 420 piles at record speed, in order to allow the FSRU vessel to berth. As part of a variation order, the works included all mechanical and electrical works to make this achievement possible, such as firefighting systems, a control building, CCTV, lighting and all the power supply.

The fast track nature of the project combined with the additional M&E works represented a major challenge in terms of timely design, procurement and construction. On the other hand, completing the remaining part of the trestle and the second berth whilst live gas supply and regasification was ongoing, had its own constraints and difficulties.

Swiftly serviceable

It only took 5.5 months to deliver a fully operational first berth, counting from the first pile being driven until completion including all M&E works and commissioning. For this, 221 piles were driven in 126 days. To accomplish these works in the required timeframe, 3 jackups have been mobilized. In addition, 3 crane barges, 7 supply barges and 7 tugboats are on site to carry out support and ancillary tasks.

The first 500 metres of the jetty were originally designed as a rock dumped causeway. Due to liquefaction issues encountered during the soil investigation, this was changed last minute to a piled jetty. For methods reasons, a bored piled option was chosen using 1.5 metre diameter piles.

Additional berth

The original contract comprised two berths: one for LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) through an FSRU (Floating Storage and Regasification Unit) and one for LPG and fuel oil. The client, Sumed, subsequently awarded an order for a 3rd berth.

The LNG berth was handed over on the 30th of April, 2017. The FSRU berthed shortly after and since end of May gas is pumped into the Egyptian grid. This means that the remainder of the works had to be completed in a ‘live’ environment, adding some more complexity to the mix.

On 16 November 2017, the BESIX-Orascom teams received the provisional acceptance from client Sumed. This means the project was delivered almost three weeks ahead of schedule despite the tight deadline!

The dedication and close cooperation between the various BESIX and Orascom departments, situated between Dubai (UAE), Brussels (Belgium), Lisbon (Portugal) and Cairo (Egypt), as well as the perseverance of the site team, have been the drivers in the successful completion of this project.

Learn more about this project in our Activity reports 2017 (p74-75-76-78-79)

Go to our Activity Reports page

La construction d’une jetée de 2 km de long, prête pour l’amarrage d’un navire, en 5,5 mois à peine n’a été possible que grâce à l’excellent esprit de cohésion entre les équipes, en ce compris une étroite collaboration entre le client et les divers départements de BESIX et Orascom. Je suis convaincu que ce projet servira d’exemple pour les futurs appels d’offres, maintenant la compétitivité de BESIX sur un marché toujours plus exigeant.