ExxonMobile/Chevron Hebron Project (Oil Platform)

Hebron Project

I came across this 1:30 time lapse of a four year construction project. I found it to be very confusing until I understood that it is building a gravity based structure (GBS) to hold an oil production platform for a field estimated to have 700 million barrels of "recoverable resources." "The GBS consists of a reinforced concrete structure designed to withstand sea ice, icebergs and meteorological and oceanographic conditions." The slip form constructed cylinders are tanks that can store a total of about 1.2 million barrels of oil. (And they would provide the buoyancy needed to float the platform into place during construction.) [HebronProject]

This video has some painful PR to watch, but it is probably less painful than reading any description I could write of the project. (There is no audio.)

This 3:32 time lapse is easier to watch than the 1.30 version and includes some activities such as interior work and removal of the drydock wall to float the base out to deepwater.

More videos and photos.

Someplace on the web site I read a description of the slip form construction technique, but now I can't find it :-( The time-lapse videos of the construction of the upper part of the platform shaft does show that slip form construction can vary the shape of the cross section as the forms rise. The videos also shows that several concrete pump trucks were needed to pour a new layer before the previous layer sets up.

HeddleShipyards, 2015