Beluga: The Managers of the seemingly Impossible

A group of experienced specialists realizes transports of huge cargoes across the seven seas – anything from super yachts to oversized buoys. A close look into the transport engineering department of a world market leader.

To everybody but the experts the operation seemed impossible. MV „Beluga Singapore“ moored in Mombasa had to discharge two huge red ships, each capable of carrying 1500 passengers : „Likoni“ and „Kwale“, two ferries built in Germany. In tandem the on-board cranes faced the task of lifting the cargo alongside the vessel into Kenyan waters. Under normal circumstances for the experienced crane drivers this would be nothing more than a routine operation. Especially as they already managed to lift these ferries in a wide turn right on board of the multipurpose heavy-lift freighter a few weeks before in Hamburg. In project shipping, however, things are hardly ever normal and exceptions are the rule.

In Mombasa a warehouse limited the working radius of both cranes severely. Not one degree too much, not a single second too long was the margin for the “Beluga Singapore” to heel during the lift. Otherwise the several hundred ton weighing ferries, each spanning 63 meters in total, could have swayed uncontrollably into the building while hanging on the cranes of the multipurpose heavy-lifting project carrier.

„Anything one can get on board, somehow one can get off again“, claims Yahaya Sanusi and smiles. Sanusi is Eningeering Manager at Beluga Shipping, the world market leader for project- and heavy-lift shipping. His observation is similar to proverbial tree climbing wisdom: what goes up must come down. Although some break their arm or a leg in this process. In project shipping however, accidents are not an option at all. The slightest contact of the usually valuable cargo with ship, crane or surrounding buildings can cause damage costs amounting to millions within seconds. Resulting in potential liability costs for production delays from late delivery.

With his team of 40 engineers, shipbuilders, nautical experts and captains Sanusi works behind an id-chip-secured glass door on the fourth floor of Beluga’s corporate headquarters in Bremen. Beluga’s engineering division is about the largest of its kind in European shipping. The working space of the transport-virtuosi stretches over an office of about 300 square meters, their orchestral effectiveness is worldwide. Half a dozen other colleges run operations from centers around the world, like China, Japan or the United States

Behind the desks, the windows from ceiling to floor offer a panoramic view of the river Weser. Of the ducks dabbling in its water none of the specialists is taking any notice. Too small, too profane. Their world are weights of up to thousand tons and more, vector calculations in three dimensions, mathematical grids, specifying optima in load curves as well as managing complex formulas to execute load- and torsion calculations. Computers with at least two screens and sometimes additional laptops, pocket-calculators and software like CAD as well as simulations programs like ANSYS are their tools. They handle complex geometry like other people survey their shopping lists. Some equations they ask their hardware to solve frequently keep these high-performance computers busy for an entire day and night.

It is the abundance of challenges in project shipping which has transformed Sanusi and his colleagues from a mere group of professionals into a team of experts. And although some projects are planned years in advance, at the end of the day it is the team member’s combined flexibility and ability to perform under pressure that gets jobs done. „In the morning we often simply have no idea what the expectations of the day will be, “says project engineer Anika Kerkow. Urgent requests from the chartering division may be followed by an equally pressing demand of a cargo superintendent (CSI), who faces major changes at site and by phone asks for support to be able to improvise immediately. In heavy lifting the CSI – also known as supercargo - is the outpost of the transport engineering on location. He is the bridge between land and vessel by supporting the Master to manage the transition from the theoretical loading plans as calculated by planners and engineers into practical details of lifting, maneuvering and securing the huge cargoes under real conditions on onboard. And as theory seldom equates reality, transport engineering demands as much creativity as technical know-how.

Yet the most complicated cargo to transport has not managed to make Sanusi lose his poise. On the contrary: „I am disappointed if a shipment is not challenging“, the 52 year old confides. The Singapore-born embodies solid knowledge coupled with a lot of experience and a fair amount of talent, a mixture which seems to have resulted in something like a sixth sense for shipping solutions. He silently sports the success of some heavy transports which even his own colleagues and from competitors considered to be impossible. 

Recently Sanusi, one of the very few shipping specialist with PhD, made the transport of the world´s largest buoy over a distance of 12.000 miles possible.  The colossus, a STP-buoy (STP stands for Submerged Turret Production) is used in the oil industry. It is a hub for several oil pipelines bringing raw oil from the depths of the ocean to a production tanker which in turn pumps the raw material into oil tankers.  Together with its surrounding steel structure for transportation the 27 meter high juggernaut weighed 1200 tons. Its construction in Indonesia took a full year, after which the buoy had to cross the Pacific Ocean to take its place in the open sea over the Cascade oilfield in the Gulf of Mexico. Even for the world market leader Beluga a shipment of this magnitude presented a considerable challenge and demanded an extreme level of precision. Despite intense cooperation with the manufacturer additional thrill occurred for Sanusi when – already in the port of Batam Island for last preparations for lifting – he had to adapt the plans, because parts of the complex buoy had to be changed and modified in the last minute.

The protection of merchandise sometimes requires the postponement or even to stop a shipment, if suddenly unforeseeable and serious risks could occur. As its damage or total loss usually is considerably higher than any costs resulted by the delay. And a capsizing of a ship while being loaded with such an extremely heavy cargo caused by non up-to-date loading- and torsion calculations would have been more than a theoretical risk. Knowing how to avoid such calamities is, what defines the fine art of heavy lift shipping. “Beluga has never ever had such losses“, emphasizes Sanusi.

Working with his laptop on his knees and his team on the other side of the planet behind him Sanusi solved the problem. Therefore the entire loading procedure became custom tailored to the structure of the object till the very last minute, making it an example of state-of-the art bespoke fitting. The same went for the operation in Mombasa, executed with precision from the first to the last centimeter. „This was an extremely tight fit“, says Sven Kohlen, transport engineer. „But all our preparatory calculations were exact.” During the months prior to the loading, Kohlen and his colleagues had practiced the situation many times. With the help of several stability calculations and computer simulations they puzzled out the perfect combination of movement, trimming of the ship and fastening of the ferries to the cranes. Another made to measure loading procedure.

Kohlen had flown to Mombasa for this difficult loading. Travelling around the globe is part of the routine for a transport engineer as well as for supercargoes. „In the case of extremely delicate shipping procedures we might fly to a location to inspect its particularities even before submitting a proposal to our clients“, explains naval architect Kohlen. Satellite pictures and photos of the location might offer an impression of what is feasible or not, yet nothing can substitute the scrutiny of an expert. And in this business there is no room for anything but expertise.

„And yet, forecasts with hundred percent accuracy do not exist“, explains Yahaya Sanusi. Because, no matter how accurate they are, such calculations are based on assumptions and estimations. The engineers may end up working with probabilities. „We have to find the optimum where expenditure, safety, cost and the remaining risks are in perfect balance“, he says. Not every project is necessarily lucrative. Only a fraction of the 2.600 project requests the transport engineering division took a look at in 2010 actually turned into real projects. For this it is not unusual that the clients adapt their cargo to the calculations and follow the proposals of the transport engineers.

The preparations for loading the gigantic buoy consisted of a large variety of calculations: The decisive elements for loading, transporting and discharging were not just the general laws of physics but also spectral distributions of current, wind and wave energies. For cargo and ship to safely reach their destination, it is necessary to especially secure heavy freight perfectly to the vessel. It is not uncommon that Beluga’s transport engineers special fittings and unique support-constructions that are tightly welded to cargo and deck.

The transport engineering division is something like the cerebral cortex of the project and heavy-lift shipping company. By each shipment it stores new experience as knowledge in the minds of the engineers and valuable data on the hard-drives of the computers. For instance: During the transport of the buoy special sensors were installed to measure the object´s motion. „This data collection supplied us with extremely valuable reference data, showing us, how close we were with our assumptions and calculations“, explains Sanusi. Which is not at all without importance as the next, even larger buoy, is already in planning. In 2012 the colossus might find its way on board of one of Beluga Shipping´s newly planned P-3 vessels. Their cranes jointly can hoist cargoes up to 2000 tons range. By that time a performance like that will be urgently needed. „Individual cargoes are getting heavier and heavier“, says Yahaya Sanusi observing a clear trend. The expert is looking forward to future challenges: „In a couple of years we will be transporting freight with single weights and measures that by today’s standards no one considers to be possible to ship.“

For more information please visit www.beluga-group.com

Posted 22.01.2011