Royston completes North Sea FPSO engine overhaul

Bluewater Energy Services has completed an overhaul on its 1998-built floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel Haewene Brim while it remained operating in the North Sea. Royston Limited and Wärtsilä completed the engine overhaul while the 103,000 dwt vessel continued operating on Shell’s Pierce oil field in the UK sector. The operating life of the vessel has been extended many years beyond original expectations and Lundin’s Brynhild oil field in the Norwegian sector has been connected to the 252m FPSO.

Haewene Brim is powered by main generating sets consisting of four 5.2MW Wärtsilä W46 medium speed diesel engines. Service work on the first engine required the Royston engineers to completely dismantle the engine and overhaul the cylinder heads and liners, pistons, con rods, cam shafts and bearings. The service was disrupted when adverse weather conditions and 100 mph winds caused the evacuation of non-critical personnel from the platform.

On resumption of the engine overhaul, damage to the crankshaft journal bearings was identified. Royston managed the remedial machining work and resumed the main engine service when the crankshaft was repaired. The engine was fully recommissioned and tested at a 100 per cent load run. Royston was then appointed to carry out remedial work on another of the Haewene Brim’s engines, involving the replacement of the resilient mounts and realigning the engine to the generators.