200 BBL tank skid fabrication drawings.
Case study: ASTCAD produced complete fabrication drawings for a 200 BBL frac tank skid unit for a Queensland-based oilfield services company — including frame skid, walkways, piping manifold and instrumentation, to AS 1692 and API 12F.
Project overview
ASTCAD developed full fabrication documentation for a transportable 200-barrel frac tank skid for an oilfield services company supplying the Surat and Bowen basins. The unit includes the tank, structural skid, walkways, piping manifold and instrumentation tie-in points, designed for road transport and rapid site deployment.
The challenge
The tank had to comply with API 12F for tank design and AS 1692 for steel tank construction while also meeting NHVR road-transport dimension limits. The skid needed forklift pockets at the correct centre of gravity, plus lifting lugs sized for crane loadout — and the entire assembly had to be fabricable by a fabricator that owned a CNC plasma table but not a coordinate measuring machine.
Our approach
- Tank shell design per API 12F with corner reinforcement and baffles
- Skid frame fabrication drawings with CNC-ready DXF nests
- Walkway and handrail design to AS 1657
- Piping manifold layout with isometrics and pipe support locations
- Loadout lifting analysis with crane-pick angles and rigging schedule
Deliverables
- 62 shop drawings — tank, skid, walkway, manifold
- DXF nests for plasma cutting (12 sheets)
- Welding map per AS/NZS 1554.1 with weld procedure references
- Lifting analysis report with rigging arrangements
- Bill of materials with mill cert traceability requirements
Outcome
The first unit was fabricated in 14 weeks (vs. 18-week budget). The CNC-ready nests eliminated marking-out labour and material wastage dropped to under 6%. The client has since standardised this design and ASTCAD has supplied fabrication documentation for a further nine units of the same type and three variants.
How we approach tank skid fabrication drawings
Tank skid fabrication drawings have to serve three audiences at once: the fabricator building the skid, the transport contractor moving it, and the site crew installing it. For packages like this 200 bbl unit we design the skid structure for the lift, transport and operating load cases — each governs different members — detail the tank supports and hold-downs against the tank manufacturer’s loading data, and document pipework supports, ladder and platform access to the applicable standards. Lifting lug design is verified formally, because the first lift is the skid’s toughest day.
Skid package documentation
Deliverables include structural fabrication drawings, lifting and transport arrangements with centre-of-gravity data, pipework isometrics and support details where in scope, surface treatment specifications for the service environment, and a verification summary for the lifting design. Everything is dimensioned for workshop fabrication and site bolt-up, with match-marking where field assembly is required.
We document skid-mounted packages for fabricators and equipment suppliers across oil and gas, water and industrial sectors — from single-tank units to multi-vessel process skids. Fixed-scope quotes are available from your P&ID and equipment data.
Skid packages also live or die on transport compliance: width, height and mass limits determine whether the unit moves as general freight or an escorted overdimensional load, and the cost difference is significant. We design to the transport envelope from the start where the equipment allows it, and document the transport case — restraint points, CG, permit dimensions — so the logistics contractor quotes from facts. A skid designed 200 mm narrower at the drawing stage can save more in freight than the entire engineering fee.