Sarens wins biggest contract in its history

Kazakhstan-based oil company Tengizchevroil (TCO) has entrusted Sarens with the land transportation and installation of pre-assembled units, pre-assembled racks and associated oversized equipment. All required for the company’s US $36.8 billion Future Growth and Wellhead Pressure Management Project (FGP-WPMP).

This is the largest project ever for the heavy lifting and transport company based in Belgium.

TCO, which is jointly owned by Chevron (50 percent), ExxonMobil (25 %), KazMunay Gas (20 %), and LukAgro (5 %), is the operator of the Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan. The work being carried out is designed to increase the well pressures and the production capacity of the existing Tengiz refinery, with the new plant being built on a modular basis incorporating pre-assembled units fabricated in Korea and Italy, and pre-assembled racks fabricated within the Caspian.

Under the scope of the agreement, Sarens is contracted to develop and operate two trans-shipment bases (TSBs), one in Finland and one in Bulgaria, where cargo will be offloaded from ocean-going vessels and reloaded onto smaller Russian Inland Waterway System vessels for onward delivery into the Caspian. At the Kazakhstan building site, Sarens is contracted to off load, store, stack, and transport the modules to their installation points.

Wim Sarens, CEO at Sarens, said, “With over 60 years of experience in engineered transport, marine operations, and heavy lifting, we are confident that we can deliver with diligence and quality the multiple elements of this project that have been entrusted to us.”

Sarens started the planning and engineering of the transportation and lifting activities in 2014, using a team drawn from worldwide Sarens operations based in the TCO office in Farnborough, UK, supported by other Sarens specialists in Kazakhstan, Belgium, Poland, Finland, and Bulgaria.

Bev Bentley, project director at Sarens, added, “The unique scale and challenges of this fascinating project will set a new benchmark for heavy transportation and installation work. At Sarens, we have the experience and the equipment to accept the challenge, we have the vision to develop and implement unique solutions, and our personnel are looking forward to delivering our services in a timely, efficient, and, most importantly, safe, manner.”

For the duration of the project (2017 to 2020), Sarens anticipates deploying approximately 150 specialist personnel to the various locations of the project, whilst also employing approximately 250 local professionals from the various sectors of logistics.