GAC Singapore manages heavy airlift for Prosafe's FPSO

GAC Singapore says it has successfully completed a major air and sea freight charter using four massive Antonov AN 124 aircraft, to move six giant gas compressors from Europe to Southeast Asia.

The aircraft are the width of a soccer pitch and its length is almost the height of a seven-storey building, with a maximum payload of 230,000 kilogrammes, or the combined weight of nearly 165 family saloon cars.

The MAN Turbo gas compressors, plus tools and accessories, were air freighted from the manufacturer's facilities in Germany and Switzerland to Singapore and were barged over to Batam, Indonesia, for installation onto the topside module of the Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, the Cidade de Sao Mateus.

"GAC Singapore is extremely happy that we delivered on our promise to Prosafe Productions Singapore," said Jorgen Nielsen, GAC Singapore's business manager for Logistics Services.

He said it was a delicate operation given that "each gas compressor unit is 10 metres long and each weighing 50,000 kilogrammes. The only way we could airfreight them into Singapore was to use one of the world's largest heavy transport aircraft available, the Antonov AN 124."

The operation was the first time that Prosafe Productions used the Antonov AN124 super freighter to move the massive compressors and there was some degree of apprehension, a GAC statement said as late delivery of the compressors would have upset Prosafe production schedules.

Mr Jorgen said that in addition to the air component from Europe to Singapore, GAC Singapore arranged for special heavy-lift cranes and low-loader transporters to move the compressors from Singapore Changi Airport to the Singapore port for loading on to special barges for the sea journey across the Straits of Singapore to Batam, Indonesia.