IRO members meeting at Mercon

On 27 April, the IRO members meeting was held at Mercon’s Head Quarters in Gorinchem. IRO – the association of Dutch Suppliers in the Oil & Gas industry – organizes these member meetings in co-operation with Dutch offshore firms to disseminate knowledge and bring members together.

Over 120 Oil & Gas professionals attended the presentation by Managing Director, Willem Griffioen. Focus of his presentation were the projects currently under construction at Mercon and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

With respect to CSR, Griffioen explained how Mercon implements the 3P principle (People, Planet, Profit) in its organization.

During the yard tour, the delegates could actually visit two offshore projects which are being realised at the Gorinchem yard.

The topside which Mercon is building for GDF SUEZ E&P Nederland B.V is almost ready for load out. Griffioen highlighted that one of the challenges of this project is the short construction time. First cut took place on 4 October last and sail away is already planned for 2 June. Another challenge was the integration of the power unit in the Cellar, Mezzanine and Main deck. In order to compress fabrication time as much as possible, Mercon already started building the topside, while the power module was still to be supplied and integrated at a later stage into the topside. Next to this, very high preservation requirements made the project a truly exiting venture.

Visitors also found the Riser Access Tower (RAT) that is currently under construction for NAM a very interesting structure.

The design of the RAT and the installation method, is a new innovative concept for which Mercon has been awarded a framework agreement by Shell U.K. Limited and NAM B.V. The RAT is a monopile platform which will be used in combination with subsea trees and existing production platforms to develop smaller gas fields. The smart installation method makes both installation and decommissioning in the future, a considerably cheaper exercise.

Mercon’s current activities in other disciplines such as Storage Tanks, Infrastructure and Industrial Maintenance were also briefly addressed. At the end of the day a networking reception gave all attendees the oppurtunity to catch up and exchange views.