Yemie Adeoye 29 August 2013, Lagos – Fairmount Marine’s tugs, Fairmount Summit and Fairmount Alpine, have delivered the world’s first floating ‘gas plant’, the FSRU Toscana, safely offshore Livorno, Italy.
The Toscana was towed from Dubai via Malta where final equipment was installed. After delivering the Toscana, both Fairmount tugs assisted in mooring the unit to her six pre-installed anchors.
The Toscana is a floating, storage and re-gasification unit, FSRU, which is now moored 12 miles offshore Livorno and will be used as a terminal and export point for liquefied natural gas, LNG.
The unit is the converted 2004 build 288-metre long LNG tanker Golar Frost. The conversion took place at Drydock World in Dubai for contractor Saipem and client OLT Offshore LNG Toscana SpA.
When fully operational, the unit has a re-gasification capacity of 3.75 billion cubic metres a year (11 million cubic meters a day) and a storage capacity of 137,500 cubic metres of LNG.
For the towage of FSRU Toscana, Fairmount Marine mobilised tugs Fairmount Summit and Fairmount Alpine towards Dubai. After hooking-up, the convoy set sail for Malta. In Malta, the Toscana had a stopover for final outfittings. Later both tugs towed Toscana to her final location offshore Livorno and assisted in mooring the FSRU.
Saipem, Fairmount’s client, was very pleased with the performance. “The execution of the complex operations demonstrates sound engineering methodology, good preparations, strong teamwork and 110 percent commitment of all involved,’’ stated Saipem management.
Mr. Albert de Heer, CEO of Fairmount, is happy with the achievement of the entire team. “We are delighted to have been so closely involved in this truly unique assignment,’’ Mr. De Heer says. “Once again the Fairmount team demonstrated its supreme professionalism in successfully completing this complex, high value project. We hope it’s the first of many to come.”
Fairmount Marine is a marine contractor for ocean towage and heavy lift transportation, headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Fairmount’s fleet of tugs consists of five modern super tugs of 205 tons bollard pull each, especially designed for long distance towing, a multipurpose support vessel and a large submersible transport barge.