In the second part of 2020 Resinex supplied a large tilting mooring buoy for the Bonga North West Field, a deepwater project of SNEPCo (Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company) in Nigeria.
The oil field, located in the Gulf of Guinea, is owned by SNEPCo (operator), Esso Exploration & Production Nigeria, Total E&P Nigeria, and Nigerian Agip Exploration. In operation, the production currently has 40000 barrels of oil per day.
The buoy produced for Belcorp, an engineering Nigerian company, has a net buoyancy of 45 tons and a diameter of 5.8 m. It is made up of 16 modular unsinkable floats in linear polyethylene shells and filled with polyurethane foam.
It is equipped with a Sabik SC 160 II marine lantern with GPS and a stainless steel top mark with a radar reflector. Mooring is guaranteed by an SWL 150 tons steel omega shackle. A protective guardrail, an access ladder, and 4 bollards allow safe anchoring at service boats.
Much attention has been paid to the corrosion protection; as a matter of fact, the customer requested a lifetime of the anodes of at least 15 years and this has led to include a large quantity as a further guarantee, besides the usual protective paint.
The quantity (32) and type of anodes to be used have been determined by in-depth studies considering the local environmental conditions, such as sea galvanic currents that over time wear out the metal part. The chosen material was not zinc (often used in these cases), but the more resistant aluminum, whose alloy was specifically made according to the particular chemical composition requested by the customer. A special production line was used exclusively for manufacturing these anodes.
The Category C5M system was used for the painting, recognized as the best painting cycle in the Oil & Gas sector, thanks to its high resistance in corrosive environments.
A further peculiarity that distinguishes the production of the buoy, concerns the mould used, also created ad hoc to obtain the specific net buoyancy requested by the customer, proof of the great flexibility that always identifies Resinex production.
