Ballast Tank Refurbishment

The MISC FPSO required her ballast tanks to be coated in order to achieve class certification. However, the vessel was in constant use and the owners required a solution which did not require dry-grit blasting or involve solvent-based paints due to the risk of explosion and fire. Furthermore, the requirement for a large number of equipment, e.g compressor, dehumidifier etc., would make the contract impractical and expensive. Chemco was approached as the only company that could match the customer’s requirements.

Preparation of the tanks at sea with high pressure washing and coatings to be carried out in high humidity and on rusty steel. Application of solvent-free coatings capable of application on poorly prepared substrate, some without any profile and with mill scale; and still achieve class certification whilst the vessel is in full production/operation.

High pressure-wash (800 bar) to remove loose rust and loose mill scale. First/Primer coat and stripe coat was carried out with Epo-chem™ RS 500P solvent-free, wet & rust tolerant system @ 100µ DFT followed by the topcoat with Epo-chem™ RA 500M solvent-free, wet tolerant system @ 250µ DFT.

The work was successfully supervised by Chemco Speciality Coatings (SEA), Chemco’s subsidiary in Singapore. Class certification was achieved with zero downtime.

Chemco was the only company which could provide the solution and did so in a cost-effective manner. The client gained class certification with no loss of production. They were also delighted to receive Chemco’s comprehensive guarantee.