Marine and Barging

Our Marine services covers a wide variety of activities, our role is part of the risk assessment and management for an asset. We concentrate our efforts on the technical governance and operation expertise for an asset and focus our services to meet our clients’ needs.

EPT can respond with an interdisciplinary team matched to provide professional support related to the specific issue at hand. We can provide the right expertise to fulfil your requirements in;

Crude Oil Evacuations and Barging Services

engineering analysis, 

naval architect services, 

marine civil assessments, 

marine operations planning & oversight, 

construction superintendence, 

evaluation and feasibility studies, 

risk & safety reviews, 

navigational assessments, 

FMEA/FMECA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis / Failure mode, 

Effects and Criticality Analysis), 

vessel delivery management, 

IMR planning and audit or independent third-party verification.

We have specialist technicians and engineers who are experienced in design, operation, first and third-party analysis of systems.  Our experience and capability includes analysis of safety and operational critical systems including; drilling systems, dive & ROV systems, ballast systems, jacking systems, crane systems, pipe-lay systems, LNG cargo systems including re-liquefaction systems, power systems where emergency generators are not used, redundant propulsion stems and safe return to port in compliance with IMO requirements for passenger ships and crew boats.

Crude Oil Barging and Alternative Evacuation Services

We provide specialist support for crude oil barging and alternative evacuation activities. Our track record of successfully supporting operators in developing an alternative approach to crude oil evacuation (typically through ‘troubled’ pipelines) by use of barges and marine spread sets us apart. We integrate the crude barging plan into the entire asset development plan and  follow through the execution.

As major crude oil pipelines/trunk lines age and experience fatigue failures while also continually being interrupted by third party activities causing outage and production losses, most operators and asset owners will continue to seek alternative evacuation routes.  For operators in the swamp and nearshore onshore assets, crude oil barging is the preferable solution.

Alternative Evacuation/Crude Oil Barging System Design

We design fit for purpose and terrain specific alternative evacuation systems.  Our experiences and deeply rooted knowledge of the entire upstream business value chain and together with our marine expertise makes us the best choice solution providers here.

As petronaval experts, we develop crude oil barging and alternative evacuation systems by leveraging our petroleum engineering and marine expertise.

Our design deliverables includes;

1. Sizing of specifications of equipment and systems in the various alternative evacuation nodes namely crude dewatering node, loading manifold node, evacuation/shuttle node and terminal/export node.
2. Specific vessel sizing and selection based on route- draft limitations etc, tugs and AHTS selection etc.
3. Overall barging scheme design for cost effective and efficient evacuation.

 Manoeuvrability, Anti-Collision, Mooring and Berthing Studies 

We conduct manoeuvrability studies for barging and shuttle vessels movements in creeks, channels and narrow rivers and recommend the best voyage practices for the terrain. Our clients can sail and safely manoeuvre in even tough terrains, berth and moore safely, evacuate their crude oil and enjoy continuous revenue.

Maneuverability studies help identify optimal sailing speeds, approach conditions to STBL/mother vessels, minimum coverage angle, minimum distance between vessel etc.

Mooring and Berthing procedure are specific to the operations and neighborhood circumstances. Handling of mooring line during mooring and unmooring activity requires experience and precision. The number and positioning of the various mooring lines such as head lines, spring lines (fwd,aft),  stern lines is determined through our mooring analysis and simulation.

The following activities can be conducted safely and effectively;

• Rigging of fenders
• Mooring Operation
• Unmooring and cast off.
• Rigging of Fenders

Ship to Ship Transfer (STS) Procedures Development

Ship to Ship transfer procedures ensure safe and effective cargo transfer between the vessels. The components here are;

1. Cargo connection and rig up.
2. Cargo transfer with sequence of tanks/compartments and handling of ballast.
3. Transfer flowrate, topping rate and slow down procedures.
4. Manifold and safe navigation watch
5. Hose disconnection and draining.

Route Survey and Route Risks Analysis

We conduct route analysis for inland water ways barging and advise optimal barging routes for our client’s barging operations.

The key activities conducted include;

1. Channel Measurements and depth
2. Loading point and offloading terminal vessel berthing requirements.

• Creek and sailing route pictorial representations.

1. F(P)SO/Terminal representation and depth.
2. Mapping and coordinate identification of barging routes.