July 20 - Geodis Wilson Italia has begun the delivery of four absorber reactors from Italy to the Abu Dhabi Gas Development Company Ltd (AI Husn Gas) Shah Project Site, a new facility 250 km south of Abu Dhabi, UAE, where a large natural gas extraction an

One of the reactors, which each weigh more than 1,400 tonnes and measure 60 m in length and 10 m in diameter (pictured below), shipped via Ortona, and two others have shipped through Monfalcone and Marghera.

The whole operation will last around 18 months. The reactors will be joined by around 200 special components originating mainly from South Korea, China and Italy, which will be used to construct specific parts of the Shah Gas plant. The total volume of goods transported will reach an impressive 300,000 cu m.

"The success of an exceptional delivery like this one depends on the effectiveness of upstream high-engineering activities" comments Biagio Oro, industrial project director at Geodis Wilson Italia. "This means planning all the transport operations in precise detail. Such precision tasks include: the chartering of the best suited cargo vessels; stipulating exact dimensions in contracts with ship owners; carrying out feasibility studies to identify the best routes; supervising the loading of the materials; overseeing unloading operations at the destination port and the arrangement of transport and logistics service for final delivery to the construction site".

Once off-loaded at the port of Mussafah, UAE and customs cleared, the reactors are to be transported on special self-propelled modular trailers (SPMTs) to travel around 250 km across the rugged terrain of the Middle Eastern desert, utilising unsurfaced off-road tracks. Each exceptional load will arrive at its final destination having spent nearly a month in the desert, travelling at speeds of 7 to 8 km/hr, before being handed over to the managers of the Shah Gas plant.

Geodis Wilson Italia is a division of Geodis Group, a global logistic provider wholly owned subsidiary of SNCF Group, with a turnover of EUR6.9 billion in 2011, a workforce of over 30,000 employees and a sales network present in around 120 countries.

www.geodiswilson.it