AIRBUS BELUGA TRANSPORTS SATELLITE TO KENNEDY SPACE CENTER

Airbus called into action its A300-platform Beluga ST cargo aircraft to fly one of its own telecommunications satellites from Toulouse to the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The whale-shaped Beluga was tasked with carrying the HOTBIRD 13G unit for France-based satellite operator, Eutelsat. The satellite’s twin, HOTBIRD 13F, was successfully shot into orbit just hours earlier using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. An Airbus spokesperson told Breakbulk the satellite was 5.4 meters long and had a launch mass of 4,476 kilos.

The satellites will be used to enhance the broadcast of more than 1,000 television channels into homes across Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East.

The Beluga ST fleet is being repurposed for outsized freight transport services after Airbus announced the aircraft would be replaced by six brandnew A330 Beluga XLs, which are used to fly Airbus components to sites in Europe.

Just one Beluga ST has so far begun operations, with another four slated to enter service over the next two years.

The aircraft has a capacity to transport up to 40 tonnes, and while less than the payload of a Boeing 747-F or an Antonov AN124-100, its unique dimensions – which include an inside height of 6.7 meters – means the plane is ideal for carrying oversized cargo for industries such as oil and gas, construction and aerospace.

For the satellite move to Cape Canaveral, the cargo at Kennedy Space Center was unloaded using one of Airbus’s new outboard platforms, a 5-meter-high handling device that is designed for positioning in advance of an aircraft’s arrival. Up to 20 platforms are slated for deployment at strategic locations worldwide by the end of 2023.

BBONE

Meet Airbus at Breakbulk Europe, 6-8 June in Rotterdam and at Breakbulk Americas, 26-28 September in Houston.

Projects In This Issue

Name: Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, UAE (page 29) Status: Online Capacity: 1.6 GW, rising to 5 GW by 2030 Value: US$13.6 billion

Name: Shagaya Renewable Energy Plant, Kuwait (page 29) Status: Online Capacity: an estimated 4 GW by 2030

Name: Plambeck Emirates Floating Offshore Windfarm, Saudi Arabia (page 26) Status: start-up expected in 2027 Capacity: planned 500 MW of installed capacity

Name: Vadinar CDU refinery expansion project, India (page 41)

Status: completion slated for 2024 Capacity: expansion to increase capacity from 405,000 bpd to 920,000 bpd

Name: Panipat CDU refinery expansion project, India (page 41)

Status: completion expected in 2024 Capacity: project to boost capacity from 300,000 bpd to 500,000 bpd Value: US$4.5 billion

Name: Visakhapatnam refinery expansion project, India (page 41) Status: completion expected in 2023 Capacity: expansion will increase capacity from 166,000 bpd to 300,000 bpd

Name: Grand Renaissance hydro project, Ethiopia (page 45) Status: first stage online, expansion slated for 2024 start-up Capacity: plans in place to raise capacity from current 750 MW to 5.3 GW

Name: Zungeru hydro project, Nigeria (page 45) Status: first stage online Capacity: further development will expand capacity from 175 MW to 700 MW

Name: Mpatamanga hydro project, Malawi (page 46) Status: under development Capacity: once online, the facility will have a capacity of 350 MW

Name: Western Green Energy Hub hydrogen project, Australia (page 48)

Status: final investment decision to be taken in 2027 Capacity: estimated 50 GW of wind and solar power to produce 3.5 million tonnes per year of green hydrogen Value: US$70 billion

Name: NEOM green hydrogen plant, Saudi Arabia (page 50) Status: under development Capacity: 650 tonnes of green hydrogen per day, with startup slated for 2025/26

Name: SASB natural gas field, offshore Turkey in the Black Sea (page 58)

Status: Canada’s Trillion Energy recently drilled the first well in its 2022-23 drilling campaign

Name: Neptun Deep natural gas project, offshore Turkey in the Black Sea (page 59) Status: OMV Petrom to make final investment decision in mid-2023

Capacity: project holds an estimated 42-48 billion cubic meters of natural gas

Name: Midia Gas Development (MGD) project, offshore Romania (page 59) Status: online Capacity: an estimated 0.5 billion cubic meters delivered in 2022 is expected to rise to 1 billion cubic meters per year for the following three years Value: US$400 million

Name: Baltic Power offshore wind project, Poland (page 61) Status: construction to begin in 2024 Capacity: an estimated 1.2 GW of installed capacity

Name: Kriegers Flak windfarm, offshore Denmark in the Baltic Sea (page 63) Status: online since late 2021 Capacity: 605 MW Value: US$1.2 billion

Name: Polimery Police petrochemical plant, Poland (page 66) Status: construction project was 96 percent complete by the end of August 2022 Capacity: propylene dehydration and polypropylene production unite will have a capacity of 437,000 tonnes per year

Name: Kemi bioproduct mill, Finland (page 82) Status: project developed by Metsä Fibre slated for start-up in third quarter of 2023 Capacity: 7.6 million cubic meters of pulpwood feedstock to produce 1.5 million tonnes of bioproducts. Value: US$1.85 billion

Name: Basra Refinery Upgrade Project, Iraq (page 80) Status: expansion slated for completion in 2025 Capacity: project will increase capacity from 210,000 bpd to 280,000 bpd

Name: Golden Triangle Polymers, Houston (page 83) Status: final investment decision taken in late 2022 Capacity: construction of 2.08 million tonne per year ethane cracker and two, 1 million tonne per year polyethylene units to start immediately. Start-up slated for 2026 Value: US$8.5 billion