Middle East Growth Plan
24 June 2010
Costain Abu Dhabi is pressing ahead with plans to win more
business through focusing on the refurbishment of giant oil storage
tanks in the desert emirate.
Home of the United Arab Emirates' federal capital, Abu Dhabi has
vast reserves of oil and Costain's activities focus on providing
services to the various operating companies that form the Abu Dhabi
National Oil Company (ADNOC).
Much of Costain's work is concentrated on Das Island in the
Arabian Gulf, around 150km off Abu Dhabi's coast. There, a team of
personnel under Costain Abu Dhabi's General Manager, Alastair
Smith, works to ensure that the process of refurbishment of the
tanks - typically up to 25 metres tall, 80 metres in diameter and
each holding up to half a million barrels of crude oil - progresses
smoothly.
"The tanks must be drained down, checked and have both their
shell and bottom plates repaired every few years." says Alastair.
"The tanks are located within vast hydrocarbon processing plants
and are connected to the rest of the facility by a mass of pipework
that has to be sealed off to allow work to begin."
The Costain team is close to completing a contract to refurbish
three of the vast tanks and the company is hopeful of winning
further contracts which it has recently bid.
Costain Abu Dhabi's projects are carried out year-round in
temperatures that can exceed 45 degrees Celsius in summer, and
continues to bring in a steady flow of contracts - £6m in the past
10 months.
Ends