Qube Energy’s capabilities were on full display when it recently completed a major gas pipes project.
As an established provider of supply chain and technical support services to the oil and gas sector, Qube Energy supports more than 3983 onshore wells, 1000 rig supply vessels, barges and offshore construction vessels at various locations throughout Australia each year.
Combined with its South-East Asian operations in Singapore and Indonesia, Qube provides a seamless link to its Australian facilities and operations.
Qube Energy maintains certification for ISO 9001, 45001 and 14001, and understands the oil and gas industry’s importance to the Australian economy. The company believes the provision of logistics support to this market is consistent with the growth of its service offering over the last 10 years.
Qube recently completed a project two of its clients that included the delivery of gas pipes from Tianjin, China, to the South Australian town of Moomba, about 770km north of Adelaide. The task involved the movement of 1635 pieces of 508mm-diameter pipe at lengths of 18m, for a total of 28km and 3750 tonnes.
“We were first contracted to ship the pipe from the load port, before unloading the pipe in Australia then transporting it to an intermediarty stockpile in Adelaide,” Qube Energy Project Manager Anthony Wells said.
“Following this, we then unloaded the pipe onto transport and delivered the pipes from Adelaide to Moomba.”
The requirements of the project meant the pipe arrived into the port of Adelaide in two shipments before being delivered up to Moomba. The transportation of the pipes was completed by using double extendable road trains with a total length of up to 46m.
But this posed some logistical challenges.
“Having appropriate escorts, rail track supervision for oversize loads and navigating local curfews were just some of the challenges we faced,” Wells said.
“There were 208 trailers used to deliver the pipe from Adelaide to Moomba.
“Given the distance of the project from Adelaide, 24 individual extendable trailers were utilised on the project combining to make 12 extendable road trains in the rotation to deliver up to Moomba.”
The project’s short timeline also presented many challenges over the course of the delivery window. The most significant of these was the 360km of a one-way dirt road on which the trucks travelled, with the total trip calculating 900km from the port of Adelaide.
“Dirt-road travel has many unknown variables to come into play when driving,” Wells said.
“The speeds that can be travelled on a dirt road can vary from as low as 10km per hour to about a maximum of 60km per hour, depending on the corrugation in the road.
“All drivers have to drive to conditions in order to avoid unnecessarily damage to the vehicles and trailers.”
Rain also played a factor in the delivery process. Not surprinsgly, when dirt roads get too wet they are closed to avoid damage being caused by heavy vehicles – and they can stay closed for some time.
Despite these challenges, the Qube Energy team successfully delivered the project on time.
“Qube values the opportunities that these projects afford us to better our service offerings to customers and to continue to improve and learn from each of them,” Wells said.
“Whether the project is for one length of pipe or 100,000 lengths, Qube always endeavours to provide our customers with a high-quality service.
“We continue to invest in our people and our equipment, ensuring our customers continue to receive the best service offering no matter which country or state or territory we are working in.”
This article featured in the September edition of The Australian Pipeliner.
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