Team members from our Salalah Liquefied Petroleum Gas (SLPG) project in Southern Oman are celebrating a unique achievement. Huge dome roofs have been safely installed on two LPG tanks using nothing but air, something that has not been done at Petrofac before.

After many months of preparation, both air lifts have been successfully completed. The cryogenic, double-walled steel tanks are 40 metres tall, with a 43 metre diameter, one for butane, the other propane. Each of the dome roofs were built inside the tanks at ground level, the heaviest weighing around 380 tonnes. This allowed most of the roof erection work to be undertaken at a low elevation, reducing the safety risks by limiting the need for working at height.

The tank walls were constructed simultaneously with the roof assembly until the intended height was achieved. The roofs were then fitted with a seal system around their rim areas to the shell and the tank entrances closed, so that everything was airtight.

Four large blowers pumped air into the tanks, underneath the roof. The gradual increase in air pressure enabled the roof to slowly rise to the top of the tank at a rate of around one metre every five minutes.

A team of engineers continually monitored the progress of the roofs as they rose. Extensive checks were made to ensure they ascended evenly, maintaining alignment throughout the process, allowing a smooth traverse from low to final position.

Once each roof reached the top of the tank, it was temporarily secured before being fully fitted and welded into position.

Partha De is the Project Director, leading Petrofac’s SLPG team. One of our mid-sized EPC projects, it is challenging and diverse in its nature, including the delivery of the low temperature storage tanks: “The project is well underway now having broken ground just over a year ago and it’s a great achievement to have completed this unique milestone, with both roofs in place. Well done to everyone involved, it’s down to their skills and extensive planning that the lifts have gone so smoothly.”

About Petrofac

Petrofac is an international service provider to the oil and gas production and processing industry, with a diverse customer portfolio including many of the world’s leading integrated, independent and national oil and gas companies.

Petrofac designs, builds, operates and maintains oil and gas facilities, delivered through a range of innovative commercial models, enabling it to respond to the distinct needs of each client and helping them to transform the value of their assets across the oil and gas life cycle.

Petrofac’s service offering is underpinned by its ability to develop resource holders’ local capability through the provision of skills training with competency development and assurance frameworks. Around 20,000 employees operate out of seven strategically located operational centres, in Sharjah, Aberdeen, Abu Dhabi, Woking, Chennai, Mumbai, and Kuala Lumpur and a further 24 offices worldwide.

Petrofac is quoted on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: PFC)