Fairmount Expedition Delivers Castor Topside

Fairmount Marine’s tug Fairmount Expedition has delivered an 18,000- ton topside for the Castor project off the coast of Spain.

The topside was loaded onto Heerema’s H-541 barge and towed from Corpus Christi towards Spain, according to a company statement. The Castor project is a 1.3 billion-cubic-meter submarine gas storage project at a depth of 1,800 meters, 12 miles offshore Valencia at the east coast of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea. The topside was build in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Fairmount Marine was hired for the towage across the North Atlantic by Heerema Marine Contractors. Tug Fairmount Expedition mobilized the barge H-541 Flushing in the Netherlands. Upon arrival of tug and tow in Corpus Christi, the topside was loaded onto the barge, where it was prepared for towage across the North Atlantic.

Meanwhile, Heerema Marine Contractors’ crane vessel Thialf was brought into position in the Castor field ito install the topside. Once the topside was taken of the barge, Fairmount Expedition commenced demobilization of the barge.

The 12,068-mile voyage from Flushing to Corpus Christi to Spain took 50 days.

Photo shows tug Fairmount Expedition towing the Heerema barge with the 18,000-ton topside for the Castor gas project in Spain.