Dismantling under way
ONE of the biggest-ever dismantling contracts for off-shore oil platforms is under way at Able UK’s yard near Hartlepool.
Three huge barges have delivered modules from BP’s North West Hutton platform to the firm’s TERRC (Teesside Environmental Reclamation and Recycling Centre) facility at Able Seaton Port, Graythorp.
Installed in 1981, 130km north-east of the Shetland Islands, the 37,000 tonnes North West Hutton installation accommodated more than 200 staff and had a production capacity of 130,000 barrels a day.
The field ceased production in January 2003 and in 2006 BP announced the offshore removal and transportation would be undertaken by Heerema Marine Contractors, with Able UK recycling and disposing of the structures at TERRC. Permission was given by the yard to undertake the work by the Environment Agency in June.
Able UK chairman Peter Stephenson said: “A project of this kind is a challenging and complex operation. We have worked closely with BP and Heerema over a number of years preparing for this.
“The first phase of our involvement at TERRC includes the arrival and processing of the topside structures, weighing around 20,000 tonnes.
“The operation involves their removal from the platform by a heavy lift vessel and then placing them on the barges for the journey to TERRC.
“We will receive the main steel jacket structure next summer and, given the scale of the project, it will provide considerable employment for a period of two years.”
He added: “Whilst this is a very big platform - and indeed the largest of its kind to be decommissioned so far in the North Sea - the work involved is the same as we have undertaken in dealing with many redundant offshore structures over the last 20 years.
“What it demonstrates is that TERRC is established as a world-class centre for the marine reclamation and recycling industry with enormous potential for the future.”
