Unique Seaflex, a Unique Maritime Group company that provides integrated turnkey subsea and offshore solutions, has facilitated one of the most complex underwater lift projects. The project was carried out for Lundin Tunisia BV in approximately 300m of water.
Lundin Tunisia BV is a 40% stakeholder in and operator of the Oudna field 80km offshore Tunisia. At end of the field’s viable lifecycle, the FPSO was to be decommissioned and several hundred tons’ worth of moorings had to be disconnected without incident. After a series of technical discussions between Lundin and Unique Seaflex, it was determined that a combination of 41 different-sized parachute-style Air Lift Bags (ALBs) up to 50t in size were needed to be installed on the moorings to reduce their tension to a manageable level. The Unique Seaflex ALBs allowed the deck-mounted linear winch to pull on the chafe chain to slacken the connection to the Ikdam deck hook. The connecting shaft was then pulled out from the wren hook, which freed the chafe chain. Once released, the chafe chain was transferred to a nearby AHTV that held the de-tensioned mooring system whilst the Ikdam FPSO disconnected.
Along with the fleet of ALBs, Unique Seaflex also supplied all the heavy-duty shackles and lifting slings, an air inflation/deflation system and a topside technician to oversee the operation.
