LNG terminal supplies gas to Dutch households
Since 16 September 2022, the floating EemsEnergyTerminal in northern Eemshaven (NL) has been operational to supply Dutch households with low-calorific gas. To say that Altrad played an all-important role in this is an understatement.
An express train project
There was no question that gas production in Groningen had to be phased out. The Netherlands was mostly dependent on Russian gas but uncertain gas supplies made it clear that alternatives had to be realised urgently. The impressive LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) terminals project in the north of the Netherlands suddenly gained momentum.
Commissioned by Gasunie, Jakob Vos (Project Manager Stork) contacted ALTRAD. The question was simple: can we realise this hugely intensive project together at a rapid pace? The answer was 'yes' and the rest is history.
Roll up your sleeves
The LNG terminal is a plant that converts liquefied natural gas, which comes to Eemshaven by ship, into gaseous natural gas. A pipe network forms the connection between the lng tankers and the plant that does the conversion of the liquid natural gas ( -162 C°) to gas using heat. Altrad not only provided the scaffolding structures around the pipes (a total of 440 scaffolding / 30000 cub, but mainly did the heat and cold (cryo)insulation and electrical tracing.
Jakob Vos: "For us, the time factor - and the lack of it - played an all-important role. We needed a party that could fully meet our needs. The drawings of the LNG terminal were only on the table in June 2022, so the delivery deadline was 3 already months later. A guarantee on material delivery was crucial as we could not afford a delay."
Jos Pelzer (Manager Operations Altrad): "I immediately had a good contact with Jakob. We offered a realistic approach to the works in which our expertise obviously came in handy. Such a 'speed job' was a nice challenge for our team and the cooperation went extremely smoothly."
"Jos and his team had a very quick and good understanding of how we could approach this optimally and I needed that. Questions were immediately responded to and work was adjusted if necessary. Cost, manpower and resources, everything came together perfectly and it was a great collaboration. We were like identical twins," Jakob Vos adds.
1 point of contact for good communication
Stork also found it an added value that there was 1 supplier, so less time was lost in communication. For instance, RWE supplies heat to the plant to vaporise the LNG to gas.
In the end, 4km of pipes of 70cm diam were fitted with heat insulation and 1km with cryogenic insulation.
The weather conditions to install this insulation were not optimal but were smoothly overcome by the ALTRAD team. For instance, towers and tunnels were shrink-wrapped and fitted with heating, to be able to continue working and meet the timing.
Jakob Vos: "Jos also accommodated us in providing solutions. We worked against the clock to make everything work, also in collaboration with Jurgen Meuleman (site manager scaffolding construction RWE). It saved me a lot of headaches. "
The LNG terminal has now produced at 1 year, 20% more than anticipated and the aim is to scale this up even further in the future. This means a cost reduction for grid-connected consumers. Thanks to the terminal, some 8 billion additional cubic metres of natural gas can be supplied to the Netherlands every year.
"Together we made sure that this project had a successful implementation and we contributed enormously to supplying the European gas market. It's proof that if you work well together, you can achieve good solutions and great results. We will also use this project as an example project worldwide to show how we delivered this feat quickly and efficiently.
Team
Stork
Procurement manager: Jakob Vos
Project manager: Ornell Veenema
Project manager: Hans Reitzema
Altrad
Operations manager: Jos Pelzer
Project Manager Insulation: Andreas Gerritzen
Scaffolding Project Manager: Jan Reinder Bos
RWE & LNG Quay
Site manager: Jurgen Meuleman
Scaffolding construction: Gerben Doornbos
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