Oil rig equipment flies to Mexico

Cape Crating loaded up two charter planes at Cape Town International last week with 135 tons of oil rig equipment bound for Mexico. The cargo was refurbished by Belmet Marine, Cape Town, and the project managed by Sean Abbott of Cape Crating for Ceva Logistics who chartered the planes. An Antonov cargo plane was loaded with 85t, while another 50t of cargo was transported in a 747 cargo plane. Co-owner of Cape Crating, Owen Bottomley, explained that the riser handling assembly (RHA) was an integral part of the drilling system as it was required to transport the riser joints from either side of the rig to well centre when the riser is run to seabed. "The derrick structure is 160 feet wide, and the only way to bring in the riser is with the RHAs,” Bottomley told FTW. “There are only seven of these ‘riser handling assemblies’ in the world,” he added, which is why it was necessary to move them by air.