Cranes & Lifting Equipment

Titan Cranes help on Kupe in the race to completion

The Kupe offshore gas field near New Plymouth promises to play a major role in meeting New Zealand’s future gas needs. Despite the complexity of the project and the diverse mix of contractors involved, the project is on time and scheduled to complete in March/April 2009.

Origin Energy, an Australian owned company has developed the Kupe gas field on behalf of a number of joint venture partners, including Origin Energy Resources (Kupe) Ltd (50 per cent), Genesis Power Limited (31 per cent), New Zealand Oil and Gas Limited (15 per cent) and Mitsui E&P Australia Pty Ltd (four per cent).

The facility is expected to provide the New Zealand gas supply network with approximately 253 petajoules of natural gas (15 per cent of the requirement), as well as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and 15 million barrels of light oil (condensate). It is anticipated that the field will provide this amount for around 20 years.

Carrying out the mechanical side of the contracting, principally pump and pipework installations for the production station, is Robt Stone, one of New Zealand’s largest mechanical engineering companies with extensive oil and gas experience in Taranaki. Robt Stone project manager, Nigel Goldstone says they got Titan involved on the crane hire side, “because we needed someone who could provide the right equipment with experienced operators and be onsite here for the 15 months or so that they’re needed. It’s mainly pipe laying work – we have 34,000 metres to install – but we needed specialist rough terrain cranes for the job; we’ve got four here, two of 50 tonnes, one of 25 tonnes and one of ten tonnes. Then we have our own cranes as well.”

Paul Clout of Titan in New Plymouth reckons they were picked for this project because of their commitment and track record in health and safety issues when it comes to crane work.

“We have personnel trained to Petrochemical Industry safety standards and masses of experience in oil and gas station crane operations. We have worked successfully on the Maui and the Pohokura fields, for example, and our commitment to health and safety training is well known. In fact our general manager, Gordon Stone, has been closely involved in the development of safety standards in the industry as a member and former President of the Council of the Crane Association of NZ,” Paul says.

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