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3part of AkerPositionedto performAker Solutions provided design, engineeringand procurement of a key gas dehydration unitto Hyundai Heavy Industries, for Adma Opco’ssupercomplex at the Umm Shaif field off AbuDhabi. The field, and Hyundai Heavy’s contract,are among the world’s largest of their kind.Aker Solutions was on the spot, coordinatingwork by a fabricator near the yard and ensuringa successful delivery, on-time and on-spec.By Ryan Skinner

2“Their ability to coordinate and follow-upfabrication here in Korea was critical.” HHIFor large projects like the Umm Shaifdelivery, Aker Solutions and HyundaiHeavy Industries had to address risksconstantly throughout the project. ForAker Solutions, this meant workingclosely with both Adma Opco and HHI duringdesign definition, focusing hard on procurementand managing its fabricators’ work in Korea verycarefully, with a permanent on-site presence andregular meetings. For HHI, it meant choosingpartners with high project management capacity, arigorous focus on production schedules andcareful vendor selection. With successful deliveryof the large Umm Shaif process platforms, bothHHI and Aker Solutions gain a powerful referencefor future contracts in the Middle East region andon large, complicated installations.“This was a huge contract, for us and HyundaiHeavy Industries. Their scope was over USD 1billion, and we were working closely with themduring the bidding with Adma OperatingCompany,” said Lionel Waintraub, the executivevice president of Aker Solutions’ process systemsunit in France, who led the negotiation process.The Umm Shaif field is a giant oil and gas field(capable of as much as 600 000 barrels of oil perday), and has been producing since 1962. Gas hasbeen produced from the field since the early 80s,and, recently, field owners Adma Opco [AdmaOperating Company] chose to boost the field’sgas production and injection capacity. In order toavoid interconnection issues between the threeplatforms needed, Adma Opco sought onecompany that could undertake the whole projectHyundai Heavy Industries [HHI] won the fullcontract for engineering, procurement andconstruction of Adma Opco’s three new UmmShaif platforms for collection and separation, gascompression and accommodation. This was thefirst project awarded by the United Arab Emiratesentirely to a foreign company, and signified amajor step for HHI as a turnkey supplier of suchlarge and complex systems.The Gas Dehydration unit consists of a high pressure absorber and a glycol regeneration packagesplit into three skids. This image shows one of the three skids housing the reboiler unit andassociated items.“This is just an enormous project, and demands alarge amount of skilled manpower and complexengineering. Among other things, the field’s highsulphur gas content meant that all materials needto be wholly inconel, an alloy of chrome, iron andnickel. It resists corrosion, but it’s probably tentimes more expensive than more conventionalmaterials,” said DH Jung, the deputy generalmanager in HHI’s offshore purchasing departmentresponsible for all procurement on the Umm Shaifproject.HHI signed the contract with Aker Solutions in2007 for the engineering and supply of threealmost wholly inconel skids that, once assembled,would make up a 2 000 tonne gas dehydrationand compression unit. Jung added: “We had to bevery selective choosing partners on this project.Technical capability, project management, financialstrength and a competitive bid were all strongfactors in our decision. Aker Solutionsdemonstrated its ability to do all of this. They did agreat job. Any delay in procurement or productionwould have been disastrous, and Aker Solutions’timely and accurate engineering and supply keptthe project on track. Their ability to coordinate andfollow up fabrication here in Korea was critical.”Linking engineers in France with builders inKoreaThough HHI has a long record supplying complexoffshore deliveries (it is a world leader in FPSOconstruction, for example), this contract’s size andcomplexity brought special demands. Further, HHIand Aker Solutions had co-operated many timesbefore, but this project would require a new levelof co-operation and coordination.Because of the tremendous weight of the threeinconel skids (flash separation, surge drum andgas compression), HHI requested that they befabricated locally. Otherwise, it would add a thornytransportation issue to an already complex project.“Aker Solutions has worked on numerous projectswith HHI and other Korean yards before, but thiswas different. We would have to make a large andcomplicated delivery, working with an unfamiliarfabricator and co-operating across continents andlanguages. It was a challenge, but I think wemanaged it well,” said Waintraub.Aker Solutions selected Sung Jin Geotec toundertake fabrication of the gas dehydrationskids. HHI had introduced the two companies;Sung Jin is immediately adjacent to HHI’s yardand had supplied it frequently on large offshoreprojects. Aker Solutions knew the fabricator tohave previously supplied French energy majorTotal, one of Aker Solutions’ long-standingpartners.To help coordinate the work done by engineers inFrance and the client and fabrication yard inKorea, Aker Solutions brought in a key asset with©2010 Aker Solutions. All rights reserved. www.akersolutions.com

3“Any delay in procurement or productionwould have been disastrous, Aker Solutions’timely and accurate engineering and supplykept the project on track.” HHIexperience in both countries. Hannah Lim startedher work on the Umm Shaif project in France,where she was a document controller and projectassistant in the engineering phase. Onceprocurement and fabrication began, she was onsite in Korea to facilitate communication andensure the fabrication complied with drawings andrequirements. Lim’s presence on-site enabled aflexible work schedule and expedited the deliverytime. “Technically, Sung Jin had plenty ofexperience. But they had little experience workingfor foreign clients. My role was simply to expediteunderstanding and thus avoid any unnecessaryproblems,” said Lim.In addition to Lim, Aker Solutions’ project managerPhilippe Thomas made monthly trips to Korea tovisit HHI and Sung Jin, and an Aker Solutionspackage engineer was on-site throughout much ofthe project to assist in procurement and thedetailed design.A contract under pressure“Nobody really expected us to be able to deliverthis on time,” said Jung. “And with a delivery timein May, missing the deadline by just a few weekswould mean a delay of many months, with Korea’smonsoon going from June to October.“Part of the reason no one thought we could dothis was the high inconel content of the packages.Another was the demanding nature of the client.This whole project meant a great amount of risktakingfrom HHI. But we knew what we weredoing, and we’ve been able to move fast with lotsof technical manpower and good decisions.”Jung describes how HHI grabbed the EPCcontract from Adma Opco and ran with it. As soonas Worley in Kuala Lumpur was done with theFEED (Front End Engineering and Design), HHItook the drawings and started its execution. “Wejust couldn’t wait for them,” said Jung.helped us to make this successful delivery.”CommissioningHHI’s platforms were completed on time in 2009,and are currently on location in the Arabian Gulfundergoing final commissioning. The gas facilitieswill be on stream by March, according to plan,with an expected production of 1 billion cubic feetof gas per day going to Das Island for LNGproduction shortly thereafter.“This was a key delivery for us, and – bydemonstrating our ability to combine engineeringin France with fabrication in Korea – we haveearned the possibility of participating in many newprojects. Korean yards like HHI are demonstratingtheir ability to deliver very large and complex turnkeysystems to new markets, like the Arabian Gulf.We’ll be staying close to them,” said ChantalRigaill, Managing Director of Aker Solutions’process systems company in France.Gas dehydration systems are designed toremove dissolved water from wet saturated gasand meet dew point specifications to 1ppm.Employees coordinated across continents and languages for the timely delivery of the Umm Shaifproject.The reason for Jung’s and HHI’s haste was downto the market pressures of 2007. This was themidst of an oil and gas contracting boom, and rawmaterial prices were high and rising, with greatfluctuation. HHI would need to completeengineering and make purchase orders as quicklyas possible. “The difference between ordering anitem before December 2007 and after could meana difference in delivery time of 22 weeks, and awild price hike,” he said.Said Lionel Waintraub: “The price for thesesophisticated metals was changing basically everyday. We had to focus when making orders to writevery good contracts that would mitigate our risk toprice fluctuations. This we managed, and, with theend client’s clear specifications, we were able toprocure all of the materials quickly and with littleerror.”OG Kim, mechanical lead engineer for HHI on thisproject, was impressed: “This project required atremendous amount of engineering capacity, andAker Solutions gave us their full capability. They©2010 Aker Solutions. All rights reserved. www.akersolutions.com