Modular Construction Timeline

The Suez Oil Ras Fanar Field Development project was located on the west side of the Gulf of Suez and included two well-head platforms in approximately 100 feet of water, subsea pipelines, an onshore power plant, crude sweetening facilities, and export facilities. Offshore facilities, by necessity, have been constructed using modular construction. Many of the techniques developed and refined on offshore construction have been adapted to offsite construction of onshore facilities.

The Valdez Marine Terminal incorporated an innovative, first-of-a-kind floating dock design. At the time it was, by far, the largest crude oil tanker loading terminal in the U.S. Fluor was responsible for EPCM of the original terminal and used new technical approaches to control costs and meet aggressive budget goals. The terminal included both fixed and floating berths.

Fluor provided engineering, procurement, and construction management for the Shedgum Gas Plant, which was part of an overall Saudi Arabian Gas Program undertaken by Saudi Aramco to utilize natural gases previously considered waste product. The design of the Shedgum Gas Plant was executed using a modular concept in order to take advantage of the similarities between the new facilities and the existing facilities. The design concepts of modularization, equipment grouping, and similarity of layout contributed to schedule and cost savings.

Fluor was responsible for engineering and construction management of Saudi Aramco’s Ju’aymah Terminal, one of the world’s largest crude oil storage and loading facilities at the time. The ethane-and-heavier product from the Shedgum and Uthmaniyah NGL Plants was piped to the Ju'aymah Fractionation Center for fractionation into ethane, propane, butane, and pentane-plus products. The fractionation modules included facilities for polishing the propane and butane products to meet final water and sulfur specifications.

Sohio's produced water treatment and injection facilities used a modular design concept. Process, utility, and electrical equipment was installed and interconnected in six enclosed modules and five skids. The modules were 47 feet wide and ranged up to 120 feet in length. Individual modules weighed up to 750 tons. The modules and skids were sealifted by barge in the summer of 1981 and, subsequently, installed and interconnected at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

Beginning in the early 1980s, Fluor provided engineering design and materials management services for the Hermosa oil and gas offshore production platform in California's Santa Maria Basin. The first platform installed in the basin, it was designed to withstand storms and earthquakes while housing a large-scale drilling operation for the client, Chevron U. S. A. Module and jacket fabrication for the platform were finished in 1984. Mechanical completion and jacket installation followed in 1985.

Fluor was awarded a lump-sum contract for the erection of a new office building and the remodeling of an existing warehouse by Upjohn GmbH at Heppenheim in West Germany. The total structure of the building was designed in precast concrete. The interior walls were built using high quality modular panels. The scope also included a full service kitchen designed for a work force of 150 employees. The project was completed and occupied by the client within eight months of breaking ground.

Fluor performed engineering, procurement, and construction management for the Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Limited (GASCO) natural gas liquid (NGL) extraction plants at Bab and Asab in Abu Dhabi. The remote plants required that modular construction be used and that the modules then be shipped to the site for installation. The success of this project led to subsequent work with GASCO.

ARCO contracted Fluor to engineer and construct the Lisburne Facilities Project. The project was located in the Prudhoe Bay Field area and was made up of five onshore and one offshore drill sites and a central onshore production facility. Fluor developed a production center composed of seven modules. The modules included oil production, gas processing, gas injection, power generation, utilities, shop/warehouse, and living quarters.

Fluor, as the managing contractor, provided engineering, procurement, and construction management to ESSO Exploration and Production Côte d’Ivoire, Inc. (ESSO). Fluor was responsible for the offshore drilling and production platform, as well as the pipeline and onshore re-separation and storage facilities. The offshore drilling and production platform includes an eight-legged steel jacket structure supporting three production modules, three drilling equipment cap bridges, and drilling rig plus living quarters and helideck.

Fluor and Shell Gabon S.A. worked together as an integrated team throughout engineering and design to minimize the impact on existing production and to ensure that all activities were achieved. As a result of the collaboration, Fluor implemented a modular construction approach with most of the modules fabricated and tested in Europe prior to shipment to the site in Gabon. The approach reduced the number of people required on the site and reduced the amount of time spent at the facility.

Completed in 1997, the Statoil Gas Terminal and Methanol project consisted of 8 pre-assembled units and 13 pre-assembled racks. Modularization was maximized on this project to improve the project schedule, reduce costs, and reduce peak labor at site. The fabrication yards were located in Haugesund and Averoy, Norway; and the modules were transported to Tjeldbergodden, Norway for installation.

Fluor, in a joint venture with United Industrial Enterprise, performed engineering, procurement, and construction of the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) process facility storage and offloading unit for Bluewater Engineering, B.V. The project required a modular construction approach in order to meet the demanding, fast-track schedule. The processing facility was completed in just 22 months.

Fluor performed engineering, procurement, construction, and maintenance services for the Muskeg River Oil Sands Mine constructed as part of the Athabasca Oil Sands project. The project was designed to produce 155,000 barrels per day of bitumen. Production began in late 2002 and will continue for approximately 30 years.

After successfully completing CETAC I, Fluor was awarded CETAC II by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide planning, design-build, general construction, renovation and repairs, life support services, and operations and maintenance to the military in a 25-country Area of Responsibility.

Fluor assisted ConocoPhillips China, Inc. develop the largest offshore oil production facility in Bohai Bay, China. The full field development project included six remote wellhead platforms, central riser/utilities platform, and double-hull floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) system. For the FPSO topside modules, Fluor used state-of-the-art spectral fatigue analysis to calculate the stress concentration factors on critical structural connections. Fluor also designed flexible elastomeric bearings to rest the modules on the hull supports, a simpler design pioneered by Fluor for FPSOs that avoids the precision machining and exotic materials of traditional friction pendulums or bearing pots.

Fluor provided comprehensive services to Total for its refinery upgrade and modification in Port Arthur. Services included the initial feasibility study through commissioning support. The project was carried out to add flexibility to process heavy sour crudes into cleaner burning fuels for the U.S. market.

Fluor drove many cost-saving measures and strategies to achieve success. These included modularization of interconnecting pipe racks, worksharing, and strategic partnerships with contractors and suppliers.

Fluor’s scope of work included the design of two artificial island drilling and wellhead production gathering facilities; subsea pipelines to transport well fluids, high pressure injection gas, and injection seawater; onshore (Zirku Island) facilities including crude oil and gas receiving, processing, handling, storage, and export facilities; along with supporting utilities and infrastructure. Due to the remote locations and limited access and laydown on Zirku Island for construction labor, Fluor recommended an execution plan that maximized preassembly and modularization of process plant and gas gathering facilities. Infrastructure designs (jetty and heavy hall roads), necessary to accommodate large modules, were included in the FEED phase engineering to accommodate early site development and define the execution approach for EPC contractors.

Fluor was selected by Grifols, a global biotherapeutic and biotechnology company, to significantly expand their manufacturing capacity. The Grifols project employed advanced modular design and construction techniques to build both the structure and processing units simultaneously in order to shorten the overall schedule. Rather than a sequential construction approach, where the building is first constructed, then process units are installed, piped, and finally started up, the NFF construction strategy was based upon a concurrent build model.

Provo River Constructors [PRC], a Fluor-led joint venture, designed and reconstructed a 24-mile-long stretch of Interstate-15 (I-15) in northern Utah. PRC used Accelerated Bridge Construction [ABC] to expedite the schedule. Under this ABC method, four bridges were constructed on the side of I-15. These bridges are as heavy as 3.8 million tons, and as long as a football field, including end zones. With the use of a remote-controlled, self-propelled modular transporter, the bridges were be moved into place overnight, allowing for full freeway closure without impacting the safety or travel times of motorists using the interstate.

Fluor provided preliminary services, front-end engineering and design, engineering, procurement, and construction for Shell's Carbon Capture and Storage Quest project. Fluor used an innovative modular execution approach for the 1.1 million tonne-per-year carbon capture facility at the Scotford Upgrader. Captured carbon dioxide is sent about 80 kilometers from the facility via underground pipeline to an underground storage site.

Fluor, as part of a joint venture with SKM, provided engineering, procurement, and construction management services and programme managed a series of multi-billion dollar projects for BHP Billiton Iron Ore (BHPBIO) in Western Australia. The Fluor-led joint venture was engaged by BHPBIO to assist in the execution of its iron ore expansion projects to increase mining, processing, rail transportation, stockpiling, and shiploading capabilities across BHP Billiton’s Pilbara iron ore assets. The project included large-scale modularization to reduce on-site construction workforce requirements.

Fluor’s responsibilities span the project’s life cycle and include design, engineering, procurement, module fabrication, transportation, installation, and construction. Fluor is responsible for the new delayed coker unit that will convert heavy, higher sulfur residual oils into transportation fuel products such as marine gasoil and diesel fuel.

Fluor designed 60 process modules and 106 conveyor and services gantry modules for Debswana Diamond Company’s Letlhakane Mine Tailings Resource Treatment Project in Botswana. The project will extend the Letlhakane operation’s life-of-mine by 25 years.