Darius V. Snieckus
OGJ Online
LONDON, June 28 -- The 110,000-tonne steel gravity-based Maureen Alpha platform will arrive Friday by tow at Aker Offshore Partner AS's Stord facility in Norway.
The platform was refloated in the first step of field operator Phillips Petroleum Co. UK Ltd.'s plans to decommission the 20-year old North Sea development.
Refloating the platform, the largest and heaviest nonconcrete structure in the North Sea, was completed Tuesday night after a 60 hr operation. The Maureen Alpha was lifted off the seabed on UK Block 16/29a by injecting water under the base while deballasting seawater in the structure's three tanks.
The platform will remain moored at Aker's deepwater Stord yard until a decision regarding its reuse or dismantling can be made. Seawater displaced from Maureen's tanks, pumped into a dedicated tanker during the refloat, will be transported to an onshore facility at Sture, Norway for cleaning and disposal.
Maureen Alpha, which produced more than 200 million bbl of oil in 1983-1999, was designed to be refloated. The installation is the first to be removed in the North Sea under OSPAR 98/3, the accord passed in 1998 that requires the removal of all redundant offshore oil and gas platforms weighing more than 10,000 tonnes in the northwestern European continental shelf.
"The refloating of Maureen is a notable achievement," said Henry McGee, president of Phillips' European Division. "Twenty years ago, Phillips' engineers looked into the future, designing and building a unique structure which, now that the Maureen reservoir is depleted, has been removed from the seabed and refloated."
Phillips began planning for the refloat in 1993. Over the last 2 years it has conducted a public consultation program on its decommissioning plans, involving around 300 stakeholder organizations and individuals with an interest in Maureen's removal.
Phillips's remaining program to fully decommission Maureen field involves removal and refloating of the articulated loading column; cleaning and burial of the 2.3 km pipeline from the platform to the loading column; and removal of the drilling template beneath the platform for recycling and disposal following refloat of the platform.
McGee stressed that the Maureen owners -- Phillips, Fina Exploration Ltd., Agip UK Ltd., BG Group PLC, and Pentex Oil UK Ltd. -- want Maureen Alpha used again as an oil facility but that partial use options are also being mulled as a preferred alternative to dismantling and recycling.
UK Energy Minister Brian Wilson said, "The refloating of Maureen is a notable achievement. Phillips, its partners, and the many contractors involved in the project, have done a superb job in executing this complex operation safely, efficiently, and in an environmentally sensitive manner. Decommissioning is an important milestone and is an integral part of the operations of a successful oil province."
The one-well Moira satellite facility, 10 km from the platform, along with its associated pipelines and umbilicals, has been removed over the last year and brought ashore for safe recycling and disposal.
Contact Darius V. Snieckus at [email protected]
