[Job Story] 205mt for a Crane Configuration the UAE Had Not Seen Before

Mammoet took three jack-up legs from 175 to 205 metres at Drydocks World Dubai, using a Boom Booster setup to avoid bringing in a bigger crane

The cheapest offshore structure is one you already own. That logic is why a drilling rig built for one job is now being rebuilt for another, and why nine steel sections weighing around 105 tonnes each had to be lifted higher than a conventional crawler crane configuration could reach.

Mammoet has completed the heavy lifting scope on the Rig BW Maromba B wellhead platform conversion at Drydocks World Dubai. The asset is the former VALARIS 247, a heavy-duty jack-up drilling rig being repurposed as a wellhead platform bound for the Maromba field offshore Brazil. Commissioned by Drydocks World, Mammoet supplied engineering, equipment and specialist personnel to install nine rig leg extension sections. The work finished ahead of schedule.

Three legs, three triangular sections each. Every section weighed roughly 105 tonnes and measured 10.2 metres high by 16.2 metres wide. Installed, they raised all three legs from 175 metres to 205 metres, the height the converted platform needs to stand at its future location.

The crane was a CC 8800-1 in Boom Booster configuration, rigged with a 120-metre main boom and a 96-metre luffing jib. It was the first time this configuration has been deployed in the United Arab Emirates.

The Boom Booster is fitted to the crane’s main boom and increases its lifting capability, letting heavy components go higher and reach further out without stepping up to a larger machine. In a shipyard that distinction is not academic. A bigger crane means more ground bearing pressure, a larger footprint in a space that is already committed to fabrication work, and a mobilisation cost that has to be justified against a fixed scope.

Getting there took a full engineering package: lifting studies, ground bearing pressure calculations and detailed execution procedures, all built around the operational constraints of a working shipyard rather than an open site.

That is the part contractors tend to underestimate. Nine repeat lifts of a similar weight look like a production sequence, but each one goes to a different height on a structure that changes as the work proceeds, in a yard where other trades are still working around the crane.

“The BW Maromba B WHP conversion project is an important project for Drydocks World, bringing together our engineering, fabrication and project delivery teams to prepare the platform for its next operational life,” said Ajith Puthenveettil Ramachandrakurup, Senior Project Manager at Drydocks World. “The successful completion of the rig leg extension works is a significant milestone in that journey. We appreciate Mammoet’s contribution in providing the specialist heavy lifting expertise required to safely execute this phase of the project.”

“Repurposing offshore assets is becoming an increasingly important way for operators to extend the life of existing infrastructure, maximize the value of previous investments and reduce the need for new construction,” said Samar Iqbal, Project Manager at Mammoet. “We’re proud to support Drydocks World on the Rig BW Maromba B WHP conversion project, applying our engineering expertise and heavy lifting capabilities to help prepare the platform for its next phase of operation.”

Iqbal’s point about repurposing is the commercially interesting one. Converting an existing jack-up into a wellhead platform avoids a newbuild programme, and it moves the work from a shipyard order book into a heavy lifting and modification scope. For lifting contractors that is a different kind of business: shorter, more technical, more engineering-led, and increasingly located wherever the conversion yards are rather than wherever the field is.

Once the conversion programme is complete, the BW Maromba B wellhead platform is expected to be deployed at the Maromba field offshore Brazil.

[Job Story] 205mt for a Crane Configuration the UAE Had Not Seen Before published on The HeavyQuip Magazine.