Faced with growing crude oil transshipping demands, Statia Terminals N.V. decided to expand its storage and transfer capabilities at the St. Eustatius terminal in the Netherlands Antilles. CB&I was retained to design and construct a world-class, state-of-the art transshipment terminal on a turnkey basis.

The project presented many challenging requirements. The customer specified that the terminal must operate 95% of the time with regard to Caribbean tropical weather and sea conditions. We designed the terminal for a product flow rate of up to 90,000 barrels (14,300 cubic meters) per hour to or from the ship; the mooring system was designed to service tankers of up to 520,000 deadweight tons.

We added 5 million barrels (800,000 cubic meters) of storage capacity to the Statia facility. The new terminal includes a single-point mooring (SPM) system, a 12,000 horsepower onshore pumping station, eight new 625,000-barrel (100,000-cubic-meter) floating roof tanks and associated subsea and above ground piping systems. The SPM was installed at a depth of 212 feet (65 meters), making it one of the deepest installations in the world. The project scope also included relocation and expansion of the terminal power generation system.

The terminal's intelligent control system enables the operator to monitor and control transfer operations from the control room. In addition to the basic operations of receiving and sending product through the SPM, the system permits smooth product transfer to the jetty from one tank to another and recirculation within a tank. The terminal can handle multiple operations simultaneously.

The project started with many uncertainties due to the remote site and complex operating conditions. We updated the specifications and scope continuously as additional information became available. Throughout the project, we remained focused on meeting or exceeding the customer's expectations. We completed the project on time-in 16 months-despite the challenging location, topography and operational requirements.