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BREAKBULKONE
As the world rides the pandemic roller coaster with countries opening and closing to travel, we at Breakbulk Events & Media continue with the weekly BreakbulkONE newsletter to keep the industry connected and supply welcome good news. Here’s a selection of subscriber favorites from the last few months.
KNOWLEDGE HUB: ENERGY
OFFSHORE WIND CREATES BUSINESS AND CHALLENGES
Project Cargo Summit Explores Project Logistics
BY GARY BURROWS
Offshore wind farms aren’t only growing in number; the size and amount of power each turbine can deliver is growing rapidly as well.
The volume and size of components is ratcheting up logistics challenges to safely and efficiently deliver components to offshore wind farms developing globally. The topic was a key focus of the Project Cargo Summit, which was held virtually in Rotterdam, Feb. 10-11. Breakbulk Events & Media was an event partner.
GE Renewable Energy is leading the drive with its recently developed Haliade-X offshore wind turbine. The units range from 12 megawatt to 14MW capacity, with a 220-meter rotor and 107-meter blade. It also boasts a 60 percent to 64 percent capacity factor, the average power generated, divided by rated peak power, whereas the industry average is 42 percent. The Haliade-X has already been selected as the preferred wind turbine for projects totaling 4.8GW: • Skip Jack Wind Farm, a 120MW farm to be built offshore Delaware, U.S. • Dogger Bank Wind Farm, a 3.6GW, three-phase North Sea farm off the east coast of Yorkshire, UK. • Ocean Wind, a 1.1GW farm off the coast of Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S.
Ward Gommeren, GE Renewable Energy’s managing director – regional senior sales director offshore wind –Benelux, said that with production on project components this year, there is great focus on logistics and safety in moving the giant wind components.
Fortunately, GE Renewable Energy’s plant in Saint-Nazaire, France, where generators and nacelles are manufactured, has water access so components can be transported to a marshalling harbor.
Gommeren said GE seeks logistics partners that can provide innovative solutions for a safe and effective transport, while following specific technical requirements “on the quay side and the vessel side, for least possible risk.”
Moderator Tobias Pleffers said with the bigger turbines and nearshoring, some freight forwarders are not expecting to be involved in offshore wind business as manufacturers tend to deal with shipping companies directly. One exception, however, is Vestas and Panalpina’s recently announced exclusive freight forwarder agreement with the new models. Gommeren responded that GE is looking at near-shoring with a dedicated organization, but the approach is global. As for partnerships, GE does a “full investigation of our potential suppliers and partners” to build long-term alliances.
Moderator Tobias Pleffers interviews Ward Gommeren of GE Renewable Energy.
CREDIT: PROJECT CARGO SUMMIT
Carlos Eduardo Lima da Cunha
European Commission
Interest in offshore wind energy has grown rapidly and globally, propelled by governments pushing towards carbon neutrality, investing in programs such as the European Green Deal,
By 2050, the EU aims to have 300GW of offshore wind energy capacity.
CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK
which pushes towards carbon-neutrality in Europe by 2050.
Carlos Eduardo Lima da Cunha, policy officer, European Commission, quoted EC President Ursula van der Leyen, who said: “The European Green Deal is Europe’s man on the moon moment.”
Lima de Cunha said the quote was apt, as “it has that same kind of commitment, pretty much a whole continent putting their efforts on that one goal … It’s a huge goal that we’re putting onto ourselves, but one that needs to be done.”
One example of the level of commitment is Horizon 2020, an EU funding program for research and innovation, which provided €3.1 billion for energy research, including €188 million for wind energy, €335 million for solar energy, €420 million for alternative fuels and nearly €1 billion for grid and storage. A further €340 million is earmarked for offshore technology, including materials and components, floating wind, he said.
In 2020 renewables reached 38.2 percent of electricity production in the EU, and surpassed fossil fuels, with offshore wind reaching 22 gigawatts, compared to about 80 megawatts of other alternative energy production, according to the EC. By 2050, the goal is to have 300GW of EU offshore wind energy capacity along with 40GW of ocean energy capacity, such as wave and tidal.
Lima da Cunha said that, beyond the pandemic, the major challenge offshore wind faces in Europe “is dealing with permits and regulations.” Wind energy production needs to be brought to an industrial scale to reach necessary economies of scale. “We also need to be able to deploy it fast enough that we can actually achieve the goals we want to achieve.”
ROTTERDAM’S ‘WHOLE PICTURE’
Despite the pandemic’s impact on ports globally, the Port of Rotterdam has navigated the “rollercoaster year,” maintaining operations and investments, and is ready for the continued rise in offshore wind shipments, said Emile Hoogsteden, director containers and breakbulk and logistics.
The port is well located near GE’s and other wind manufacturers’ plants, and offers them “the whole picture,” Hoogsteden said.
“We have space, strong infrastructure, equipment, floating derricks, specialized service providers and heavy-lift terminals,” he added. Siemens recently joined GE as a customer for marshalling services.
However, despite the growth of the wind components and Rotterdam’s well-diversified operations, volumes at the port won’t improve “until we have beaten the pandemic,” he said. 2020 volumes, predicted to grow 5 percent prior to the pandemic, slipped 8 percent to 6 million tons.
“I think if you see the situation the whole world was in, we’re relatively satisfied, or not dissatisfied, with 2020,” Hoogsteden added. BBONE
Emile Hoogsteden
Port of Rotterdam
KNOWLEDGE HUB: VETERANS
IMPORTANCE OF BACK-UP PLANS
How a Shipment of ‘Air’ Carried Big Risks
BY PETER JESSUP
THREE SIGNIFICANT CHARTERS
In the 1980s I had responsibility for the logistics on a greenfield engineering, procurement and construction petrochemical project in Saudi Arabia. Equipment, materials, fabricated pipe spools, heavy-lift and abnormal load pieces were sourced in Europe for shipment to the construction site and a fabricator in Italy.
Dock and berthing capability was constructed by the project adjacent to the construction site to enable discharge from chartered ships of all heavy-lift and abnormal load items. Ultimately this facility would be used by the client to export their products. A nearby commercial port was used to move general cargo via liner operators from ports in Europe.
Logistics appointed a project freight forwarder but undertook all chartering directly, using our standard charter party agreement. The strategy was to co-load available general cargo with heavy-lift/abnormal load movements, and where possible co-load heavy lift/abnormal loads from different ports onto one charter. The jobsite dock did not have suitable cranes or stevedores, so charter ships had to be capable of direct discharge onto transport by ship crew. We also used as appropriate full liner terms based on undertaking load and discharge “as fast as ship can load and discharge.”
sea trials and certification could create risk to the construction schedule, There were three significant and but the agreed fallback plan was interesting charters. The largest for the owner to utilize geared ships and heaviest item was an ethylene if necessary, prior to the delivery of fractionator weighing 592 tonnes Dock Express 20. Any additional cost and was 80 meters long and 6 for this above the contract value was meters in diameter. The ship used at their risk. had two 440-tonne lift capacity The other area of risk was to derricks. There were also three ensure the fabricator completed the reactors weighing 190 tonnes. (See delivery of the purchase order in Breakbulk Veterans article “The Da accordance with the due dates, to Vinci Crane,” http://breakbulk.com/ meet both the ship dates and conArticles/when-basic-logistics-discov- struction schedule. ered-brilliance) Given these risks, a mini-project The most complex was the ship- team was established consisting of ment of 75 aluminum silos and engineering, construction, logisblenders from Holland. These varied tics to focus on them. Significant in size and were incredibly light with interfacing took place with the ship a cube to weight ratio of about 12 owner on the new build progress to one. These were abnormal loads through meetings and occasional due to their low weight – in effect visits to the shipyard, similarly with we were shipping huge quantities of the fabricator and their facility. air! These would be installed at site Another significant issue and vertically to store product from the complication related to the sea faspetrochemical facility once opera- tening to ensure we could deal with tional and could carry a significant the dynamic criteria of the ship durquantity of the product weight. ing the voyage, yet avoid the risk of We issued invitations to tender to damage to the items and worse case specialist ship owners months before causing them to crush. These items the items were due to be ready and were similar to a soft drink can: when invited them to determine how we it is full of the liquid it is far stronger could best reduce the number of then when it is empty. charter ships needed, cost and meet A combined team of technical the construction schedule. representatives from the fabricator, An owner was selected: they pro- ship owner, and our engineering and posed use of the Dock Express 20 on marine surveyors worked together its maiden voy- to determine the sea fastening. This age, as it was a was primarily achieved by an ability new ship being to remove some of the bolts on the built by them. head and tail of the items. For the balance Despite the ship owner’s efforts, of the cargo they the availability of the new ship was would use other delayed so they implemented the conventional fallback plan and started to use geared ships. other suitable charter ships. Once Naturally we the Dock Express 20 completed its were concerned sea trials and received certification as any delay in its maiden voyage carried a large The cargo of silos was light and extremely fragile. CREDIT: PETER JESSUP the ship build, quantity of silos and blenders.
The fabricator delivered on time and in total there were six charter ship voyages used. The sea fastening arrangement worked and no damage was inflicted on the cargo and the construction schedule was met.
LESSON LEARNED
Strategy and associated tactics to implement the logistics plan to support construction is essential. Planning and scheduling is critical, with a particular emphasis on risks and their mitigation. Since events can occur that you cannot control, it is essential to develop in advance a fallback plan. Engaging and interfacing with all the groups involved in the plan, its tactics and implementation is important so agreement and ownership of each component of the plan is achieved. BBONE
Peter Jessup started his career as a freight forwarder and logistics specialist progressing into procurement, project procurement and project management executing complex projects. He has held vice president global procurement and supply chain management roles for major EPCs. He is a consultancy specialist in the field of procurement, logistics and project execution, based on his 35 years of experience. He can be reached at peter@proactivechanges.com.
KNOWLEDGE HUB: VETERANS
ALLIANCES MAKE EVEN THE TRICKIEST PROJECTS RUN SMOOTHLY
BY FAYÇAL BOUMERKHOUFA
As a project director I took it upon myself to convince the construction Moving critical manager to engage our teams in parts for project educational sessions and to ensure work via air is not all entities and divisions were truly uncommon, and familiar with the project requirements a fairly familiar and understood the parameters of option with proj- manufacturer and energy companies, ect owners and including protocols, legal content and their appointed change of standard terms, and accepcontractors. It is tance of the financial implications for particularly useful delivering cargo in Iraq. in crisis situations. Meeting with the construction team Fayçal Boumerkhoufa In rare occasions it is used as the key transand then linking them with the airlines’ engineering division resulted in the airline’s engineering team becoming Cargo Live Logistics port conveyor of an extended arm of the construction choice, especially team. The effort paid off: each flight for situations that combine geographi- was loaded in the correct sequence for cal, time critical and complex end onward transportation to the construcdestination and last-mile scenarios. tion site in the Majnoon area.
When I worked for an airline I was The problem identified up front was asked by a manufacturer if we could the rigidness of companies to stick to move two modular LNG trains from the their guns, especially on the terms and U.S. to the Majnoon Field in Iraq, prefer- conditions aspect. The construction ably within a specific timeframe. manager and I formed an alliance, and
Going through the legal and com- we travelled to meet with the teams mercial standard request for quotation and to ensure all was understood, to become an approved direct vendor especially the objective. to the energy company operating the This approach ensured the cusconstruction was standard work. How- tomer delivered to their client, the ever, the implementation and education Iraqi Ministry of Energy, within the time required to make this a successful proj- frame, and without any hold up. A total ect was different. It required in-depth of 68 AN124 flights were executed. The coaching internally, for the customer main lanes were primarily out of Housand the agent parties involved. ton, Texas and East Midlands, UK.
Cross-stakeholder engagement made this air cargo project a success. CREDIT: ANTONOV
The customer was asked by other energy companies in the area how they pulled it off, which was testimony to the concept and work performed.
Today I still enjoy a pleasant relation with the construction manager and have executed other ad hoc emergency services in the same realm, applying the same principle. BBONE
Fayçal Boumerkhoufa is head special projects’ division, Cargo Live Logistics, a Rock-it Cargo company. He started his career with Panalpina in his native Belgium, spending 14 years in air charter and projects. He joined VolgaDnepr Group in 2008 and specialized in complex energy and oil and gas capex projects, as well as defense programs. He joined Rock-it Cargo Group in Woodlands, Texas, in 2019. He can be reached at faycal.boumerkhoufa@ cargolivelogistics.com.
