Lake Charles company to build components for underwater well incidents

A Lake Charles company has been chosen to build and deliver components for a system that will react to underwater well incidents, such as BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010.

Work on the project, which will start with a year of framing and engineering work, is underway, project manager Robert Ward of DynamicIndustries Inc. said Monday.

The expanded containment system is being engineered for use in water depths of up to 10,000 feet.

About 500 employees — they’ll include welders, electricians and instrument fitters — will be employed during the construction phase, Ward said.

DynamicIndustries Inc., DII, is doing the work for Marine Well Co., a not-for-profit, independent company based in Houston that supplies well-containment equipment and technology in the Gulf of Mexico. That company was formed by ConocoPhillips, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell in the wake of the 2010 oil spill with the purpose of capturing, storing and offloading up to 100,000 barrels of fluid per day from a flowing well, Marine Well Containment’s website said.

“In the event of another oil spill, if there is a well blow out, they’ll put the capping stack over the well head and connected to that well cap there will be a riser cap coming up the marine capture vessel, and the product will be processed and shuttled to shore,” Ward said. “We’re building two vessels that can process 50,000 barrels each.”

In addition to the fabrication of module support frames for the process modules, DII’s Lake Charles deepwater fabrication facility has been selected as the location for the installation of the MSFs and riser turret components — that’s the piece that hangs off the ship — on the system’s marine capture vessels, as well as the integration, hookup and commissioning of the MCVs.

“The frames are built in Lake Charles,” Ward said. “There are some components that will be trucked in and assembled and integrated here. We will do the commissioning and testing here as well.”

He said the ships are being built at another site.

“We’re not going to just build the modules here,” Ward said. “We’re also going to set them up on the ship and do the testing.”

DII has six facilities along the Gulf Coast, including the one in Lake Charles. DII specializes in interconnecting piping fabrication.

Ward said what makes DII’s Lake Charles facility attractive for the project is that there are not many deepwater fabrication facilities.

“It can handle larger vessels because it has such deep water,” he said. “The billion-dollar expanded containment system will be available in 2012.”

For more information on the companies visit the websites at www.dynamicind.com and www.marinewellcontainment.com