Ellicott® "DRAGON®" Dredge Flown to Colombia for Occidental Petroleum
A 20-inch "Dragon®" hydraulic pipeline dredge built by Ellicott® International took to the air to reach a remote South American dredging site in time for dredging to start on schedule. The standard Series 1870 dredge was flown to Colombia, South America for use at Occidental Petroleum Corporation’s newly discovered Cano Limon oil site in the "llanos" (plains) region of the country. Due to the urgency of the project and the lack of railroad service or adequate roads in the area able to transport heavy equipment, airfreight was the only viable transportation solution.
Fifteen trucks moved the disassembled dredge from Ellicott®’s manufacturing plant in Baltimore, Maryland, USA to Miami Airport in southern Florida. From Miami, the dredge components were air freighted to a landing strip near Cano Limon via Barranquilla. The shipment included the largest single item of airfreight ever to depart from the Miami Airport.
The center hull, the largest and heaviest piece of equipment, was transported in a Belfast special air freighter owned by Heavy Lift, a heavy cargo air transportation company headquartered in Essex, England with offices in Miami. Other large components transported on the Belfast also needed to be specially prepared with skids in order to facilitate loading into the aircraft. These items included the ladder and side tanks.
The entire dredge was flown to the site in three trips on the Belfast heavy cargo plane. Several additional trips were made by smaller aircraft owned by Southern Air of Miami, Florida. The complete shipment included the transportation of seven large pieces, 18 boxes, 15 crates, and 51 skids. The total assembled weight of the dredge is approximately 450,000 pounds. Once all the components arrived at the remote site, it took two weeks to assemble the dredge with the assistance of a 75-ton mobile crane.
The Series 1870 dredge shipped to the project is powered by a Caterpillar 1410 dredge pump engine and a Caterpillar 420 hp auxiliary engine. The hull is 82 feet long, 26 feet wide, and 6 feet deep. The unit operates with a four-foot mean draft. A 250 hp pinned tooth type cutter module capable of dredging to a maximum depth of 50 feet is included with the dredge.
The oil field is located close to the Arauca River which forms the border between Venezuela and Colombia, approximately 250 miles northeast of Bogota. The Cano Limon oil field is located in the middle of an extensive systems of swamps, measuring 30 to 40 miles wide and 100 miles long. The lack of solid ground makes it impossible for heavy equipment to move or operate in the area. The dredge is being used during site preparation. Sandy materials are dredged from the Arauca River bed and adjacent swamps and discharged at various construction sites to construct roads and drilling pads.
Heavy oil extraction equipment and housing for site personnel was built upon land reclaimed by the dredged sand. Occidental plans to produce 200,000 barrels of oil a day at the site. From there the oil is to be pumped through a 500-mile pipeline through the Andes cordillera, linking the field to the port of Covenas on the Caribbean coast.
The owner has since reported 95%+ availability on the dredge.
Reprinted from World Dredging & Marine Construction
