Uchenna Izundu
International Editor
LONDON, Oct. 9 -- BP PLC has let a contract to Heerema Marine Contractors for the main decommissioning work on its North West Hutton integrated drilling, production processing, and accommodation platform 130 km northeast of the Shetland Islands in the UK North Sea. The platform sits in 140 m of water.
The field, discovered by Amoco Corp. in 1975, produced 125 million bbl of oil between 1983 and January 2003.
Heerema's contract covers offshore removal and onshore recycling and disposal. A heavy-lift vessel will remove the 20,000-tonne topsides and the 17,000-tonne steel jacket down to the tops of the footings (OGJ, June 20, 2005, p. 51). The units will be moved to the Able yard on Teesside for recycling and disposal.
About 97% of the material recovered will be recycled, according to BP. After this work is finished, Heerema and subcontractors will decommission the pipeline, clear debris, and inspect the platform site.
Detailed engineering for removal will begin immediately. Offshore removal is expected to begin in 2008 and to be completed by the end of 2009. A BP spokesman declined to tell OGJ the value of the contract.
BP said the contract "represents the largest remaining element of the total North West Hutton decommissioning project." BP has completed well abandonment and topsides cleanup.
According to BP, no company has tried to dismantle a steel jacket structure of this weight and in this water depth, meaning that new cutting tools are required to carry out the operation.
North West Hutton field is operated by BP (25.8%) on behalf of CIECO Exploration & Production (UK) Ltd. (25.8%), Enterprise Oil UK Ltd. (28.4%), and Mobil North Sea Ltd. (20%).
Contact Uchenna Izundu at [email protected].