Elf Petroleum Norge AS has issued calls for bids to conduct the first disposal of a Norwegian offshore installation.
The installation is a steel and concrete tower in Northeast Frigg field in the North Sea. Elf developed the field with a six wellhead subsea manifold and an articulated control tower placed 150 m away from the manifold. It shut down the field in May 1993 (OGJ, Mar. 20, p. 31).
Elf plans to deballast and tow ashore the control tower and lift the tower's foundations and the subsea installations. The tower and foundations will be stripped of all metal, and remaining concrete will be dumped.
Elf expects no environmental backlash because, while 7,000 metric tons of concrete from the tower will be dumped, the 4,700 metric tons of steel from the tower and 1,000 metric tons of steel from the subsea equipment will be recycled.
Elf says parliament approved the plan last May, before the issue of Shell U.K. Exploration & Production's disposal of its Brent spar.
