Projects
INEOS Field Operations Building, Kinneil Terminal
A blast-resistant modular building engineered for people, protection and operational continuity.
Solution: Engineered Solutions
Sector: Oil & Gas | Industrial & Process
Application: Blast-Resistant Buildings | Welfare & Site Accommodation
Project Overview
Client:
INEOS
Location:
Kinneil Terminal, Scotland
Sector:
Oil & Gas | Industrial & Process
Solution:
Engineered Solutions
Application:
Blast-Resistant Buildings
Building size:
700m²
Scope:
Bespoke blast-resistant modular building and integrated plant room
Facilities:
Permit offices, meeting and conference rooms, canteen, changing and shower facilities, accessible toilets and HVAC plant room
Requirement
Blast-resistant modular building | Oil & gas | Toxic gas protection | Shelter-in-place | Live high-risk environment
At the Kinneil Terminal in Scotland, INEOS needed more than an office and welfare building. It needed a specialist facility engineered to support people working within a live, high-risk oil and gas processing environment.
Part of the Forties Pipeline System, Kinneil processes crude oil and gas liquids arriving from the North Sea. Within that environment, the new Field Operations Building needed to provide high-quality accommodation for operational teams while responding to the potential consequences of blast, toxic gas and significant thermal hazards.
Thurston Group designed and delivered a bespoke 700m² blast-resistant modular building and integrated plant room, combining everyday working facilities with specialist protective performance. The facility was also required to provide shelter-in-place functionality, with protection against toxic gas hazards maintained following a blast loading event.
It is exactly the kind of requirement Thurston's Engineered Solutions capability is built around: understanding the challenge, engineering around the risk and creating a solution that works in the real world.
The Challenge
Thurston developed a bespoke blast-resistant modular building and plant room specifically for the requirements of the Kinneil Terminal.
Across 700m², the facility combines the specialist engineering required for a hazardous oil and gas environment with the practical spaces needed by INEOS field operations teams.
Permit offices, meeting and conference rooms, a canteen, changing and shower facilities and accessible toilets create a complete working environment. An integrated HVAC plant room supports the building's environmental and protective requirements. INEOS
Crucially, blast resistance was considered alongside the building's toxic gas protection and shelter-in-place function rather than in isolation. The blast rating of the building was 600mbar, providing one of the highest rated blast resistant buildings in the UK.
That demanded an engineering-led approach: understanding the hazards the building could face, how the facility needed to operate during normal conditions and what it needed to continue doing if a serious site event occurred.
The result is a specialist modular environment designed around people, process and risk.
The solution
Thurston provided a turnkey solution covering the design, manufacture and installation of the new accommodation building.
As both Principal Designer and Principal Contractor, the team could consider the building as a complete engineered system bringing structural requirements, manufacture, internal accommodation and site delivery together around the project's process-safety brief.
The 1,280m² facility incorporated a canteen and welfare areas alongside offices and meeting rooms, creating a substantial working environment for teams at the terminal.
Its all-steel blast-resistant construction was developed to meet the project's specified protective requirements, including both blast loading and radiant heat considerations.
That engineering challenge did not sit separately from the user experience. The imagery from the completed project shows a fully finished workplace, with open-plan offices, meeting space, a large canteen, changing facilities and washrooms demonstrating how specialist protective performance and everyday working requirements were integrated within the same facility.
The result was not simply a protective structure, but a building designed around the people who needed to use it.
The result
The completed Field Operations Building gives INEOS a dedicated operational base within one of the UK's most significant oil and gas processing systems.
For its users, it provides a modern and practical place to work, meet, manage permits, change and access welfare facilities.
For the wider operation, it provides something more fundamental: a blast-resistant building with shelter-in-place functionality, engineered to support occupant protection within a hazardous processing environment.
The project also builds on Thurston's established relationship with INEOS, having previously supplied a range of operational and welfare buildings for use around the facility.
What this demonstrates
Blast-resistant building capability
A bespoke modular building engineered for operation within a high-risk oil and gas processing environment. Designed and engineered in house.
Protection against multiple hazards
The requirement considered blast, toxic gas and significant thermal hazards rather than treating blast resistance as a standalone challenge. Requiring automation of refuge spaces linked to site wide detection monitors and automated external doors.
Shelter-in-place functionality
The facility was required to maintain protection against toxic gas following a blast loading event.
Engineering built around operations
Specialist protective performance sits alongside a complete day-to-day working environment for INEOS field operations teams.
Bespoke modular delivery
The 700m² facility demonstrates how modular construction can be engineered around highly specific operational and safety requirements.
Built on experience
The project forms part of a wider relationship with INEOS and applies Thurston's practical experience to a technically demanding real-world environment.
Discuss your next project with Thurston
Tell us about your operational needs, site requirements and delivery challenges. Our team will help you develop a modular building solution designed around your project.
