• Oil and gas

Intergroup collaboration provides innovative solution to Total

The supply of a critical mooring monitoring solution to oil giant Total has seen James Fisher group companies Strainstall and RMSpumptools come together in a fruitful collaboration, demonstrating how customers can benefit from the diverse and integrated solutions that the James Fisher group can provide.

The Integrated Marine Management System (IMMS) is for the Moho Nord tension leg platform, destined for installation off the Congolese coast in West Africa. Strainstall will provide Total with a comprehensive monitoring package that will be crucial for both production and safety; RMSpumptools will supply underwater connectors that are especially resistant to interference and malfunction caused by the growth of marine vegetation.

Strainstall’s IMMSs are designed to provide an integrated monitoring and control system for both fixed and floating offshore structures. The data monitored includes load and bending moments in the mooring tendons, the height of the deck above the sea surface, permanent and temporary ballast tank levels, wave condition, wind speed and direction, air temperature and pressure.

Strainstall offshore systems engineer Ross Davidson explains:

“Strainstall is the market leader in load cell-based tension leg platform tension measurement systems (TTMS), and those such as the Moho Nord IMMS are a natural progression from this. A key differentiator for Strainstall has always been our ability to instil confidence, because we put our engineers in front of our clients. And the involvement in this project of our JF group colleagues at RMSpumptools has certainly added value to our offer.”

RMSpumptools are supplying seventyeight of their innovative SeaConnect™ electrical connectors, a technology that – coupled with Strainstall’s monitoring expertise – offers a complete technical solution for offshore monitoring that is thoroughly robust in harsh marine environments. Michael Winfield explains:

“With traditional ‘wet’ electrical connectors, the live side has electrical contact with the ocean. Using a unique latch patented technology, our systems have protected content on both sides – male and female – which offers a level of protection against extreme marine growth that no-one else can match.”

This combined capability that can only be supplied by a company as multi-disciplinary and diverse as the James Fisher group, brings significant benefits for the customer as Michael concludes:

“For any client, there are obvious advantages to working with one supplier, providing one system that can be confidently deployed in an area with high marine growth and high potential for damage – and will provide a robust monitoring solution that works long term.”