ALE’s latest jacking innovation flexes its muscles in the Middle East

ALE’s latest jacking innovation flexes its muscles in the Middle East

ALE’s latest jacking innovation, the Mega Jack 300, has demonstrated its time efficiency, increased stability and ability to work within a restricted project site to jack-up pipe rack modules over 5m high in Kuwait.

This is part of the wider Al Zour Refinery Project EPC 2 and 3, where ALE is providing the full onshore heavy lifting solution for one of the largest refineries in the Middle East. ALE is currently receiving pre-assembled pipe rack modules from barges at the project’s construction dock, where they are transported on SPTs over 4km to a staging area. Once at staging, the modules are required to be raised to various heights to suit the finish foundations on site, where ALE has provided the Mega Jack 300 system.

The project comprises modules of varying weights, sizes and foundation heights, requiring flexibility and speed in terms of the transport and jacking equipment. A total of 188 modules will be delivered to site, measuring as large as 40m in length and weighing up to 2,100 t.

The components of the Mega Jack 300 system are both compact and easy to handle on site, meaning that re-configurations are made in as little time as possible. In addition, the jacking time has been vastly reduced during the development phase, resulting in jack-up operations taking one or two hours.

Suzette Ortega, Project Engineer, said: “From managing the system’s development within our R&D facility to seeing it perform and exceed expectations in Kuwait, it has been a real pleasure and achievement. Due to the project’s various constraints and logistical challenges, jacking in the shortest possible timeframe was essential, and the Mega Jack 300 is the best solution for the given task.”

This system is the latest addition to ALE’s Innovation Series and the third in our jacking range, supplementing the Mega Jack and Mega Jack 800 systems. It has 300t capacity per tower, and is much lighter and more compact than the previous models.

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“We are always looking at developing new solutions for our upcoming challenges. Our branch in the Middle East were discussing potential projects that required heavy modules to be jacked-up in ports. As they couldn’t find a cost-effective solution, our R&D facility researched a pre-existing concept of a system comprising of woodless climbing jacks,” explained Technical Director Ronald Hoefmans.

“We developed the idea of the Mega Jack 300 which would have the capacity to jack-up heavy modules up to 10m, without bracing. Furthermore, with the lightweight cassettes and low pick-up heights, it would be compact enough to fit in a site with limited space such as congested ports or public areas. We expect it to be fully utilised on oil and gas, port and civil projects globally.”

Binu K.T, Installation Manager for ALE’s Middle East branch, said: “It was a proud moment for all of us to utilise this state of the art equipment in the Middle East for the first time. As it is compact and very effective, with high capacity, this opens a lot of opportunities in the region using this innovative technology.”