Marsden site chiefs confident

Press, 31 January 1984, Page 1

Marsden site chiefs confident

PA Whangarei The bosses at the Marsden Point oil refinery expansion are confidently predicting that the giant project will be finished, with no further delays, by March, 1986. In a little more than two months, the work-force at the site is expected to peak at 3100, with a further 400 engineers and office personnel to bring the total number directly employed on the job to 3500. Management personnel say they are convinced the project is settling down and will soon reach a percentage completion rate of 4 per cent a month. By international standards, that is considered good progress. The man predicting the 4 per cent figure is the revamped Marsden Refinery Constructors’ general manager, Mr David Beldotti, an American. ; Mr Beldotti was formerly i JVl’s project director and

Mr Jack Hardy was JV2’s project manager. With the amalgamation of the two JVs and the consequent birth late last year of M.R.C., Mr Hardy was freed of some corporate responsibilities to concentrate on engineering matters. Mr Beldotti and the man employed by the New Zealand Refining Company to oversee its interests in the entire project, Mr Mike Steere, agreed that the three months before Christmas had been the most productive to date on the site. They attributed the improvement in the rate of work to several factors, including better industrial relations, improved management, and more cohesion as the relatively inexperienced workforce became more familiar with the complexities of the project. Another factor they pointed to was the dividends of spending about $5 million

last year on work skills training, in particular the specialist welding school at the site. Mr Beldotti said there had been remarkable physical changes on the site in the last three months. The 92-metre high flare stack support structure has been completed since Christmas. This dominates a construction skyline dotted with 42 of the 52 columns which will make the refinery one of the most versatile in the world. Within the next five to six weeks the four giant reactors, weighing up to 640 tonnes each, will be lifted on to their foundations and the flue stack will be hoisted to its full height, 120 metres. These engineering feats, scheduled for completion about six months ago, were held up by a remarkable series of events. The giant 1000-tonne ; capacity Gottwald crane,

needed for work on the reactor lifts and the flue stack, was severely damaged on its way to New Zealand. The main body of the crane broke free in a ship’s hold during a storm in the Tasman Sea. The ship’s hold wai flooded with sea water ane fuel oil and the crane had te be rebuilt. At the same time, the support structure for the flue-stack was found to have serious structural defect; and was rejected on engin eering grounds. Since then £ special rush job has beer completed in the Netherlands and a new supporl structure has now arrivec at Marsden Point. The lower legs of the massive structure are already in place and the repaired crane will be readj to lift the top sections within a few weeks. Part of the reason for manacement’s ontimistic

j outlook lies in the fact that > the site now actually resembles an oil refinery. ’ With most of the distilling columns in place and pipe ; racks beginning to join the s main components, there is a i feeling of purpose on the site. s Some of the component 1 figures involved in the pro3 ject construction are staggering: j © More than 600 kilo- ; metres of big-bore highi pressure piping with a bend s about every metre. @ 800 kilometres of eleci trical cable. i © 3 million man hours of engineers’ calculations and t drawings. 1 © 12 million man hours of on-site building and • assembly. © 51,000 valves to be fitted to the pipe racks. r Until now, all but a hand- ; ful of the work-force and supervisory staff have come • from New Zealand. • However. Mr Beldotti

said that with the change of emphasis from civil to mechanical work agreement in principle had been reached with the Boilermakers’ Union to bring in several Australian boilermakers. The project is now officially 30 per cent finished. The first section to be handed over to the refining company — the northern tank farm — has been switched into the existing refinery work so that several other tanks can be moved to make way for a new pipe rack. With 1984 scheduled as the year of peak site activity, Mr Beldotti expects the main precomissioning work on the expanded refinery to begin in 1985. Contracts for the next big phase of the project, the insulation and instrumentation, will be let soon. By the end of the year, Mr Beldotti expects the project to be 70 per cent complete.