By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Oct. 16 -- Phillips Petroleum Co.'s UK subsidiary exercised its contract option to have Aker Maritime ASA, Norway, salvage and recycle a 110,000-tonne steel production platform from Maureen field in the UK sector of the North Sea, officials said Tuesday.
It is the biggest offshore platform ever removed after use, they said. Phillips' aim is to recycle 95% of the Maureen platform.
Aker Maritime worked with Phillips in planning and executing the refloat of the Maureen platform, which was towed from the field on Block 16/29a in June. The platform is moored in Digernes Sound on Norway's west coast for inspection and cleaning at the adjacent Aker Stord site, built in 1996 as one of the few facilities for recycling offshore platforms. That facility previously helped recycle more than 98% of the former Odin field platform.
This winter the deck of the Maureen platform will be lifted from the substructure and brought to the decommissioning facility to be cut up. The loading buoy also was removed from the Maureen field and will be recycled as part of Aker Maritime's assignment.
Parts of the platform's substructure are to be used in construction of a new quay at Aker Stord.
Aker Maritime will collect 700 million kroner for salvaging and recycling the platform, bringing the total value of its Maureen field work to 1.5 billion kroner, said company officials.
Installed in 1983, the Maureen platform produced 223 million bbl of oil. Phillips originally designed the platform so that it could be removed and recycled.
