Rosa offshore field is located more than 15 km from the Girassol FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) site. As Rosa offshore field was too “small” to warrant a stand-alone development, it was tied into Girassol’s FPSO site.

It was the first time an offshore field was “connected” to a FPSO site at such a distance and depth. It took 22 months to install the 5,600 tons of additional structures, which were required to prepare the immense floating unit for Rosa’s production.

Lightweight and portable lifting equipment was necessary for the installation of these structures. Total approached Reid Lifting to order 3 gantries: two Porta-Gantries 2000kg with Wind Up Jacks Legs and one Porta-Gantry 1000kg with customized pneumatic air winch, to fit the gantry. Ried Lifting gantries are portable and lightweight, as they are manufactured from aluminium. They can easily be assembled and disassemble, meeting the requirements for use on oil rigs. The Porta-Gantries are ideal for the project, as they are easy to transport to the rig and fall within manual handling procedures.

This challenging project took four years to complete, it involved nearly 1,400 people, 3 million man-hours and Reid Lifting’s Porta-Gantries contributed to its ultimate success.