Alliance Wood Group Engineering), part of international energy services company John Wood Group PLC (Wood Group), designed the topsides of the Perdido Development facility, which was mated with its spar recently in a record single lift. Located in the Gulf of Mexico Alaminos Canyon Block 857 in 7,817 feet of water, approximately 200 miles from Houston, Perdido will become the world's deepest offshore oil & gas drilling and production facility. It is operated by Shell on behalf of partners Chevron and BP.

Alliance provided the conceptual design, front-end engineering, detailed design, construction support and installation/commissioning support for this unique topsides deck. The 9,773 short-ton topsides and rigging - a U.S. record for the Gulf of Mexico - were lifted in place by Heerema Marine's Thialf. Alliance continues to provide commissioning assistance.

According to Alliance President Norb Roobaert, "The Perdido topsides design was instrumental in the project's success. The Alliance lightweight topsides design techniques were a key enabler to permit Shell to advance this project. When combined with Shell's innovative solutions to reduce the riser load, this resulted in significant weight reduction and a significant savings in time and cost, as well as producing a safer facility."

The design accommodates production from five subsea, direct vertical access separation caissons for this host facility. Alliance demonstrated its ingenuity and flexibility, engineering a fit-for-purpose design in close tandem with Shell to successfully develop this challenging world-class project.

Tags: Alliance Engineering