Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani visited J Ray McDermott Middle East's (J Ray) fabrication facility and marine department in Jebel Ali Free Zone.

Ambani arrived to inspect the Control Riser Platform (CRP) topsides which is currently nearing completion in J Ray’s yard.

Once completed, the platform will form part of the Reliance’s Dhirubhai 1 and 3 Field Development Project near offshore Kakinada, on the East coast of India which is destined to provide natural gas for domestic consumption in India.

“It is a measure of Reliance’s faith in J. Ray that they chose us to build this project. Our relationship with Reliance dates back to the early 1990’s and the success of this project will only serve to further strengthen the mutual respect we share with Reliance”, said Stewart Mitchell, vice-president and general manager, Middle East and India.

“We have full confidence in J.Ray’s ability to mobilize its worldwide resources to meet the challenging deadlines set by Reliance for this development”, said Reliance E&P Business CEO PMS Prasad.

J Ray’s Houston office performed the necessary design development engineering and associated equipment procurement; the jacket was fabricated at the Company’s Morgan City fabrication facility in Louisiana, US, and topsides construction is currently well advanced in Jebel Ali. 

Fabrication work on the topsides recently crossed a safety milestone of over one million man-hours without a Loss Time Incident (LTI) proving that at J. Ray, despite an accelerated fabrication schedule, the speed of fabrication does not compromise safe working.

“I believe we are on our way to a World Record in fast track project completion,” said Ambani.

J. Ray’s derrick barge DB101 will commence installation of the jacket structure in January 2008 and the topsides installation will follow in February 2008. Hook up of the topsides, weighing approximately 19,000MT, and jacket structure will follow with completion expected in May 2008 - 18 months from the date that the project was awarded. – TradeArabia News Service