Mammoet, one of the world's largest engineered heavy lifting and transport service providers, has announced that it is working closely with L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering, a unit of India's top engineering and construction conglomerate Larsen & Toubro (L&T), on a major oil refinery and petrochemical complex in the northern state of Rajasthan. 

 

Mammoet and L&T have a long-term relationship, dating back to 2012, which saw Mammoet lift a 750 tonne chemical reactor with the in-house designed PTC35-DS 1600te ring crane, said a statement from the lifting specialist. 

 

The most recent project completed was at Paradip Refinery earlier this year where Mammoet lifted modules using PT 50 ring crane. 

 

For this latest partnership, Mammoet will be utilizing PTC ring cranes to lift and install a range of modules at HPCL Rajasthan Refinery. The lifting works are expected to start taking place on site in the middle of 2022.

 

For the project work, specifically, two ring cranes will be employed: The PT50 ring crane will lift and install reactors, regenerators and fractionators, while the PTC35-DS will lift and install a 127m long C3 rectifier (in three parts) and a quench water tower, it stated.

 

According to Mammoet, the ring cranes will allow L&T to install the reactors and regenerators in just two sections, instead of four sections if a conventional crawler crane is used. 

 

The PTC35-DS will prevent unnecessary sectioning and lifting of the equipment into five parts. Therefore, there will be a reduction in total lead time and overall cost savings for the customer, it stated.

 

In addition, the ring crane’s base has a small area of only 27.5 sq m, as compared to a conventional crawler crane’s base which is much larger at 60 sq m and requires multi-location re-positioning. 

 

This provides the customer with other benefits such as on-site space savings and minimal on-site disruption, allowing other vendors to execute work simultaneously with Mammoet – saving overall construction lead time.

 

Rahul Rathod, Head of Commercial and Operations for Mammoet India, said: "Mammoet started working closely with L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering from an early bid phase, which enabled creation of both technically sound and cost-effective solutions."

 

"Some lifts required for reactors, regenerators and C3 rectifiers required us to engineer sequenced lifting and provide critical changes in equipment design," he added.

 

According to Rathod, an operation of multiple lifts at a single crane position with one boom configuration is a cost-effective solution for the customer.

 

The Barmer refinery and petrochemical complex is developed for the production of cleaner fuels and is the first of its kind in Rajasthan. Once completed, it will have a total processing capacity of nine million metric tonnes per annum. 

 

Expected to be in production by end of 2023, the development is also expected to create approximately 1,500 direct jobs and contribute to Rajasthan’s economic development, he added.