Navantia wins a work that will employ 500 people in Ferrol for four months
The shipyard will repair an oil platform of Canada's main energy company
This August cannot be better for the Galician Navantia. Fene’s shipyard has just been selected by Iberdrola to manufacture, along with the Asturian Windar Renovables, the 62 jackets that will be required by the electric company to support as many wind turbines of what will be its first offshore wind farm in France, that of Saint Brieuc. In addition, Navantia Repairs Division in Ferrol’s Bay has been the winner in an international tender to carry out a work in its facilities that will have a great impact on the naval auxiliary employment. In fact, sources in this sector estimated about 500 workers who will occupy this order, both in the factory and in the workshops of their respective firms.
Thus, the Canadian owner Suncor has chosen the old Bazán facilities to develop its Terra Nova platform of the FPSO type (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) - that is, a floating unit for the production, storage and transfer of crude oil-, which will reach the Bay next spring.
Suncor has confirmed to this newspaper that “the work of Navantia Repairs at Ferrol’s Bay will help extend the floating unit life in ten years and includes key improvements for the ship, such as structural hull repairs, replacement of the heat recovery unit waste, maintenance of the plant and renovation of the rotating unit ». In addition, he emphasizes that the division led by Antonio Nieto in Ferrolterra "has reached the highest score in the process of requesting proposals by Suncor." The fulfillment of the demanding delivery deadlines in a business such as that of naval repairs, in which one day of delay in having a ship translates into thousands of euros of cost, was one of the decisive factors in obtaining this commission, made by the leading integral energy company in Canada. Industry sources also explained that Navantia faced other three European shipyards in the open international tender to award this order.
In operation
The Terra Nova oil rig usually operates off the Canadian coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the extension of its useful life will involve several guilds. Among them, paint, scaffolding, pipe and electricity. The forecasts for the execution of this work indicate the oil platform will arrive at Navantia Ferrol facilities around May next year and will remain in the bay until September, when it must be available to operate again. It will be four months in which the Terra Norte will remain in a dike of the Ferrol’s factory, where all kinds of tasks will be carried out.
The platform, in service for 17 years, is 292 m-Length, which is equivalent to three soccer fields, and 28 m-Beam (wide). In addition, it has the capacity to store about 150,000 cubic meters of oil. In recent years, Navantia has repeatedly prevail over other shipyards in international tenders for long-term repairs.
World reference factories in the repair of gas transport Ships
In this case, the contract won by Navantia belongs to the oil sector in which, by the way, the old Astano became a world leader in the construction of the world's largest platforms, although others, such as the gas or even the military have reported other similar contracts of several months of execution. The old Astano and Bazán are, in fact, specialists in the repair of gas vessels, where they held the leadership at international level several years ago. The emergence of Asian shipyards specialized in carrying out maintenance and modernization of ships dealing with the transport of natural gas has displaced Galician plants from the podium of this market worldwide, but still occupy a significant fourth place, in addition to being leader in the Atlantic.
End of work for Australia
The repair of the Terra Nova will coincide intime with the largest decrease in the occupation of auxiliary companies in the construction of the two supply ships in combat for the Australian Navy, which is of particular concern to the auxiliary naval industry.
Therefore, the fact that the company that presides over Susana de Sarriá has achieved this contract - as well as that of the 62 jackets for Iberdrola - has been welcomed by auxiliary firms in the region, who understand that it will at least palliate the decline in the activity in the military construction sector.
(Source: La Voz de Galicia)