As this is the 30th Anniversary year of Solar Solve Marine and the creation of its first 3 products, SOLAROLA® , SOLASAFE® and DIMMLITE®, which were specially designed for installation at the windows of ships and other marine vessels, I am spending some time researching significant jobs we have completed throughout the 3 decades. The current news about some old oil rigs being decommissioned prompted me to see when we supplied our first oil platform.
I was surprised to find that it was 22 years ago, in early 1995 when we dispatched a consignment of Solar Solve’s Flame Retardant products to South Korea, for installation aboard the BP HARDING oil platform that was nearing completion by Hyundai Heavy Industries at their Ulsan shipyard. It took only 19 months to build.
Interestingly the blinds were for the accommodation areas of the platform and not for navigation windows, which I suppose makes sense. After completion at Ulsan, the structure was loaded onto the semisubmersible heavy lift vessel TRANSSHELF and transported for 54 days to reach its permanent North Sea location; so no need for a navigation bridge then! The installation of the platform was completed in August 1995.
Since 1995, a substantial gas field has been discovered which is to be processed after 2021 and will extend the life of the Harding project and the Platform considerably. In mid-2013 Abu Dhabi National Energy Co(TAQA) took over operation of the 20,000-barrels-per-day Harding field and the output platform.
The order was for 50 LITETITE® FR Blackout Roller Blinds and 24 MONOTRAK® FR Vertical Louvre Blinds. Since then we have supplied all sorts of variations of Solar Solve’s products, which are all now Type Approved, to over 100 rigs, platforms of various types, FPSO’s and similar structures.
