Russian oil rig equipped with jet-fire seals

Trelleborg Viking has designed and manufactured 156 innovative jet-fire seals for oils rigs situated off Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East.

Off the icy coast of Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East stands an amazing engineering feat that will provide crucial oil and gas to the growing economies of Asia.

A Trelleborg company, Viking, is supplying the platform with jet-fire seals that delay fire, giving the people on the rig time to evacuate.

Over a period of thirty years, it is estimated that the Sakhalin facility will produce the equivalent of Russia's total crude oil exports for more than one year (1billion barrels) and its total gas sales to Europe for five years (500billion cubic metres).

To gain access to this oil, a consortium of companies, including Shell and Mitsubishi, is investing billions of dollars in building offshore platforms and onshore processing plants along the east coast of Sakhalin.

Extracting the black gold is no easy task.

"The fields are located in a very difficult and challenging area: there is a high risk of earthquakes, temperatures range from 39 degrees Celsius below freezing to a warm 28 degrees and, in winter, pack ice comes crashing in," explains Bjornar Langelo, senior engineer for safety and reliability at Aker Kvaerner, the Norwegian company in charge of building the base structures for two offshore platforms.

"We were dealing with a project 11 time zones away," he adds.

"With staff from Russia, Norway, Finland and other countries, it was a great challenge to co-ordinate the work and ensure accurate communications between all those involved.

"But everyone struggled as a unified team to get everything done on time".

One major challenge for Aker Kvaerner was to protect the concrete structures, as well as the pipes transporting the oil and gas from under the ocean floor, from potential fires and explosions.

This was a particular concern because of the high level of seismic activity in the area, making earthquakes a potential threat.

"If a fire occurs on the platform, it could spread down into the shaft and damage the structure," says Langelo.

Likewise, "a gas leak on the platform could enter the shaft, blend with oxygen in the air and cause an explosion".

The answer is to use jet-fire seals.

The seals delay the fire, giving the people on the rig time to evacuate.

Aker Kvaerner called on Trelleborg Viking in Norway for the jet-fire seals.

"We knew from experience that Trelleborg Viking had useful ideas and a great deal of goodwill," says Langelo.

"The company is known for being very flexible and easy to co-operate with.

"It also had effective technical solutions that met all the challenging requirements of this project.

"There was enormous pressure on Trelleborg Viking to get things done as deadlines approached.

"But it managed to complete tasks faster than we thought possible".

"This was Trelleborg Viking's largest project to date," says project manager Merete Ronningen of the contract.

At its premises in Krokstadelva, 60km west of Oslo, the company designed and produced 156 jet-fire seals, around 1m high and 2.5m wide.

"The challenge was to create a product that was resistant to fires and explosions, but also sufficiently flexible," adds Terje Fossesholm, manager of the offshore projects department.

"Usually, jet-fire seals are designed for small movements, between 10mm and 50mm, but because of the earthquake risk at Sakhalin, they had to be able to withstand movements of 500-600mm".

The solution is an innovative combination of reinforced synthetic rubber - and much hard work.

"We hired extra employees and had people brought in from Trelleborg plants in Singapore and Sweden," explains Ronningen.

The team had just under a year-and-a-half to complete the project, with deadlines constantly being changed and brought forward.

Finally, between March and July, 12 Trelleborg employees traveled to Russia to install the jet-fire seals on the concrete structures.

The shafts are now in place on the ocean floor, waiting to be connected to the platform.

* About about the Sakhalin project.

- Weather conditions are extreme, with temperatures plummeting to -39C or rising as high as +28C.

- The area has a high level of seismic activity, making it prone to earthquakes.

- There is fog for most of the winter, often making it difficult to land by helicopter on the platform.

- Once production is fully in progress, more than 200 employees will work on the platforms.

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