The Iraq Crude Oil Export Expansion Project was a development for the country’s oil industry, the project increased Iraq’s crude oil exports by approximately 50%. In 2011 Bezemer was awarded part of the project and supplied a 500mTon Winch, power unit, pull wires and auxiliary equipment for the installation of three pipelines. 

 Simultaneously laid pulling wires 

The three pipelines had to be installed in one trench with a separation of just 2.5 meters. All three pulling wires were laid simultaneously to ensure a perfect parallel placement with an equal distance between the three pipes. To achieve this, Bezemer Dordrecht supplied 6 storage winches with power units to lay the wire. 

Since each pipeline has a length of 3,500 meters, the simultaneous wire lay method required a significant length of steel wire rope. Bezemer Dordrecht supplied a total of 9 reels of wire, with a combined length, of over 10.500 meters of steel wire rope. These reels with 83 mm and 102 mm wire, were mobilized from The Netherlands to Iraq to complete the project. In Iraq, the reels were placed in spooling winches, which were installed on a barge to perform the wire installation.  

Pulling the pipelines 

For the pull the KTC 400 was used; a 500 metric tonnes linear winch. The time, effort and accuracy put into the installation of the pulling wires provided the desired result. The 3 pipelines were easily placed parallel with an equal distance between the pipes.  

After Bezemer’s performance in this initial phase, we were invited to supply equipment for another part of the project. Read here about how we supplied Mooring and Mating winches for the Central Metering and Manifold Platform, which is also part of the Iraq Crude Oil Export Expansion Project.