Burntisland Fabrications Ltd

~~The management team at BiFab has operated the Burntisland facility since 1990 covering a wide range of products for the oil and gas sector. From our fabrication facilities in Burntisland, Methil & Stornoway, Scotland, each with their own loadout / quayside facilities, BiFab is the largest independent specialist fabricator operating in Scotland for: Decks; Modules; Jackets; Subsea; Accommodation; Platforms; Piles, Drilling and Exotics/Pipework to the Oil & Gas, Petrochemical and Alternative Energy Industries.

BiFab operate two construction facilities in Fife, Scotland. The Methil facility, with a capacity to loadout structures weighing 20,000 Tonnes and the Burntisland facility with the capacity to loadout structures weighing 5,000 Tonnes. Our Burntisland & Methil facilities are situated on the north bank of the 9-mile wide Firth of Forth estuary, both with unrestricted direct access to the open sea. Each facility is capable to accept large ocean going vessels.

The BiFab Arnish facility in Stornoway, Outer Hebrides allows us to produce monopiles, and the manufacture of wave and tidal devices. This facility is equipped with heavy rolling equipment with the capacity to roll materials up to 150mm thickness and loadout capacity up to 4,000 Tonnes.

Whilst continuing to service the needs of the Oil Companies, Engineering Companies and Offshore Suppliers associated with the Oil & Gas and Petrochemical sector, we are now adapting our expertise to cover fabrication solutions that are required for the Alternative Energy sector covering wind, wave and tidal energy, simultaneously achieving the highest standards currently applicable.

More and more, as a company, BiFab is becoming involved - at the “front end” - in innovative projects where we are able to apply our expertise to provide practical and cost effective solutions to the development team. We pride ourselves in the fact that our clients in these projects perceive us as a proactive contributor to the overall achievement of project goals, rather than just “the fabricator”.

We aim to provide a flexible approach to the fabrication industry with the skills, expertise and competence gained from over 30 years in the oil and gas sector. We wish to be a major contributor towards the development of a new and sustainable industry. And at the same time contribute in creating a secure future for our employees and the design and fabrication industry within the UK and Europe.  

With this in mind, BiFab were very proud to have been selected for the fabrication of the substructure assemblies and associated components required for the Beatrice Wind Farm Demonstrator Project involving Talisman Energy (Uk) Ltd and Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE). Based on our experience from previous projects this was an extremely fast track and challenging project and was successful due to the good relationships, team effort and excellent working environment created by the management team of Talisman and SSE. This was the first time; two jacket structures on this scale had been completely fabricated in a workshop environment. The delivery schedule would have been significantly more difficult if 'weather' factors had to be considered.

On completion of the Beatrice project, we have now completed projects for the supply of a further 41 jacket substructures.

            31 off    Ormonde Field Development UK                       Vattenfall
            6 off      Alpha Ventus German Offshore Project             DOTI
            2 off      Greater Gabbard                                                Fluor/SSE/RWE 
            2 off      Gwynt Y Mor                                                      RWE Npower
           
BiFab have also supplied Tripod components to EEW SPC, GmbH to the Global Tech 1 project, located in German, North Sea.

Additional to this, BiFab is a partner within an Alliance formed by Scottish Southern & Energy (SSE) to facilitate early stage engineering and fabrication collaborations between developer, fabricator, installer and designer. The Alliance comprises the following members: SSE; Siemens; Subsea 7; Atkins and BiFab. The Alliance is charged with delivering offshore wind farms for SSE, initially at the Beatrice site in the Moray Firth, Scotland.  Due to the complexity and variable seabed conditions and difficult environmental conditions, the Alliance is focused on risk and cost reduction and meeting expected returns by combining cross-discipline knowledge innovative solutions throughout each phase of delivery.
Within the Oil & Gas sector, we are presently delivering the fabrication and supply of the following projects, on which we would welcome you to visit our site to see first-hand large structures being fabricated within a workshop environment:

 1 off 8,400 tonnes jacket                Solan Field Development         Premier Oil
 1 off 3,500 tonnes topside              Solan Field Development         Premier Oil
 4 off 1,000 tonnes jackets              Cygnus Field Development      GDF Suez
 1 off 3,500 tonnes topside              Cygnus Field Development      GDF Suez

Mass Manufacturing:
During the construction of the two Jacket Substructures for the Beatrice project. Talisman, SSE and BiFab commissioned the University of Strathclyde to carry out a detailed study on the various manufacturing processes involved, with an aim to maximising the total number of sub structures that we could build in a year. This study is now complete and we are aware of the final costings of the proposed new buildings at our Methil, Fife facilities. This proposal would take our current production capacity at Methil from 60 structures to between 100 and 150 structures per year. We intend to have this new facility 100% operational by end 2016.

BiFab believe that Scotland’s proximity to the North Sea and Baltic Sea, together with the experience gained from the above projects, including expertise available at the University of Strathclyde and other educational institutions, places our facilities in a unique position to develop the world’s first mass manufacturing facility to produce large offshore sub structures cost effectively. We recognise that this is an expanding market and wwe are very keen to see this kind of technique be used more widely throughout the offshore wind industry.

Innovation – New Jacket Design BiFab / Atkins
Based on experience gained from recently completed offshore wind farm projects, BiFab and Atkins have developed their own Jacket Substructure to support offshore WTG. This design is jointly 50:50 patented and capable of supporting a range of turbines from 3MW to 8.0MW in water depths 15metres down to 80 metres. This is a lightweight structure, with potential savings in both weight and manufacturing costs, along with the potential to loadout more structures per barge due to the reduced foot print at the base of the jacket.