Terex’s RT 90 rough terrain crane was recently put to the test on a heavy-duty lifting job at a work site in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia.

The crane was operated by Nabors, a leading US provider of offshore platform workover and drilling rigs, whose drilling manager David Siljeg describes the task as “five months of continuous back-breaking work without any down time”.

The crane was used to lift numerous components for drilling rigs, generators, and a power distribution and control centre at the oilfield while enduring the challenging environmental conditions at the desert site.

“For this project, we needed a heavy-duty, reliable crane that not only combined a large lifting capacity with excellent manoeuvrability under tight space conditions, but that would also be ready to start working at the drop of a hat,” said Siljeg.

He described these requirements to Saudi-based heavy equipment service provider Expertise Contracting Company, which concluded that the RT 90 it had recently acquired would be the best choice for the project.

“The RT 90 is exceptionally easy to operate, has an enormous lifting capacity, and features a rigidly designed chassis. You’d be forgiven for believing that it was made precisely for this assignment,” said Expertise CEO Mohammed Ashif, while going over the reasons why his company decided on the RT 90.

But to start work, Expertise had to bring the crane to Abqaiq from its location in Jubail. And for this purpose, it took a lowbed trailer a total of three hours to complete the 200-km journey. No additional transport vehicles were required. Once the RT 90 reached the work site, the crane operator needed a mere 10 minutes to get it ready to work.

“This meant that there was nothing in the way of the new RT 90 starting its five months of continuous operation. The four-person Nabors team was able to completely rely on the Terex rough-terrain crane at all times,” said Ashif.

“In fact, the unit completed most of the lifts solo, and only needed assistance when lifting a 60-tonne steel container that housed the power distribution and control centre for the drilling zone. For this particular lift, a Terex RT 780 rough-terrain crane came in to work hand in hand with the RT 90 to complete the task as a tandem lift,” he said.

As is the norm, every time a crane is used for the first time, Terex Crane’s team members were present at the job site to instruct the customer on the new machine.

More specifically, they provided assistance with the crane’s commissioning and operation. At the same time, they took advantage of the opportunity to study the crane’s performance under specific job site conditions in detail.

“Having experts straight from the manufacturer there at a site is very comforting, as it guarantees that you’ll be able to get assistance right away in the event of any down time. However, it never actually came to that during the project, as the RT 90 already completed the whole job reliably,” said Siljeg.

Expertise Contracting Company is one of Saudi Arabia’s prominent industrial service providers.