Canaport is a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal located in the Bay of Fundy, Saint John, New Brunswick. Canaport LNG is a consortium between Irving Oil, New Brunswick and Repsol, Spain. The facility is the first LNG terminal to be built in Canada and equipped to receive LNG from the largest tankers in the world. Canaport LNG terminal received its first shipment of LNG in June 2009.
Introduction
Ausenco performed detailed engineering and design of the marine structures of Canaport as part of an engineerprocure- construct contract to the Kiewit-Weeks-Ausenco partnership. The marine structures included 16 offshore jacket steel structures which were fabricated onshore, towed to the site and installed by crane barges to reduce the construction time. Ausenco also completed the detailed engineering and design of the roadway and pipe support trestle sections, the LNG receiving platform, mooring and berthing facilities and catwalk structures. The water depth at the berthing location is close to 28 metres and the tidal variation is as high as nine metres, therefore, conventional methods of marine construction were not practicable for the Canaport site. The berthing face is located in water sufficiently deep enough to accommodate the full range of design vessels, meaning that dredging of the sea floor to increase water depth was not required. Moreover, the soil at the terminal location consists of layers of soft overburden with very loose silt sand on top of bedrock which made the foundation design even more challenging. Due to the complex site conditions, a steel jacket system anchored to the bedrock by piles was selected for the marine structure’s foundations. These jacket structures are used worldwide for several functions and in various water depths and environments. These structures are typically built onshore in fabrication yards to facilitate quality fabrication and to reduce costs. After fabrication, the structures are loaded on to vessels and transported offshore to the final installation site. The analysis and design of the jacket structures was completed in accordance with recommendations published by the American Petroleum Institute (API). This was performed taking into account a multitude of parameters such as the environmental, berthing, mooring considerations and soil characteristics.
Design
The Canaport LNG terminal was …
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