By Scott Cahill
Aveon Offshore is a large fabricator of infrastructure and machinery for the oil and gas industry, with a proven track record of quality and reliability. Their focus on total client satisfaction is unparalleled. Theirs is a time intensive, high demand situation, in which the most efficient fabrication methods are key to providing mission critical components to their clients.
They fabricate over 10,000 tons of steel structures annually, both onshore and offshore. Their onshore construction services include the fabrication of jackets, flare booms, helidecks, riser protection, structural decks, and living quarters. Pre-fabrication is done for piping spools, structural supports, and pig launchers. They conform to ISO 9001 standards, and have expertise in welding various metals, including stainless steel, carbon steel, and duplex using a wide range of processes such as SMAW, orbital welding, TIG welding, and SAW. They also fabricate subsea structures such as suction piles, water injection equipment, and production and gas manifolds, as well as pressure vessels.
Much of the work they produce is very technical in nature and requires the highest tolerances. If a product they fabricated were to fail in the field, not only would the expense be excruciating to the client, but lives could easily be lost as well.
Aveon Offshore has experienced explosive growth since they became fully owned by Nigerians in 2007, and has emerged as one of the largest fabricators in Nigeria, working directly with international oil companies as a main contractor and with large construction and technology companies as a sub-contractor. Their fabrication yard has expanded by a factor of 9, and is now more than 54 acres (22 hectares). Such rapid growth allows no time for mistakes. Work flow is critical. When they found the need for additional buildings, they turned to Allied Buildings, perhaps feeling a kinship, since Allied’s commitment to total client satisfaction mirrors their own.
A company that fabricates truly massive components weighing hundreds of tons has a set of unique needs for their buildings, requiring both a large footprint and sufficient height to accommodate the components being built and the cranes and machinery that is necessary for their assembly. Allied worked extensively with Aveon Offshore to understand their needs and to fabricate and supply buildings that fully addressed all of their needs, their challenging production schedule, and their unique environment.
Several Allied Steel Buildings were purchased, with one of them being 112’x112’x72’, which was blast resistant and featured a very large door that covered virtually the complete side of the building.
The goal of a blast resistant building is to ensure that personnel inside the building are not subject to a higher level of hazard than those who are not. Past evidence of fatalities being caused by the collapse of buildings in a blast event gave rise to the development of the concept of blast resistance. The primary requirement of this type of structure is, in the event of an explosion, to avoid a collapse that would subsequently endanger the lives of the occupants. A commitment to the highest safety standards and to producing components in an ethically acceptable manner informed Aveon’s decision to include blast resistance in their criteria.
While the requirement for blast resistance is far from commonplace, it is seeing an upsurge as safety and risk management processes are being reviewed in the rapidly expanding oil and gas industry. Allied’s engineers made certain their design addressed this requirement fully, in addition to the more typical requirements of wind loading, seismic, and geotechnical considerations.
Today, Aveon Offshore has more than 150,000 sf of covered fabrication space and more than 32,000 sf of office space. Their new Allied Buildings have allowed them to continue their impressive growth, and they are now a part of most of the large petroleum and gas projects awarded in Nigeria.
