Shell UK Ltd.’s 170,000-tonne Brent Alpha platform in the North Sea has been removed. The 44-year old will be transported to Able UK’s Teesside decommissioning yard in North East England for dismantling and recycling.
The single-lift removal was the first decommissioning project of the summer for the Pioneering Spirit vessel owned by Allseas Group SA and the first offshore lift to utlize the service provider’s in-house developed “horseshoes” connection tools that clamp around pre-installed lift points (bearing brackets) mounted on the upper sections of the jacket’s legs.
Production from Brent Alpha ceased in November 2014. The Brent Alpha topsides removal project involves engineering, preparation, removal and disposal of the 94 m tall, 52 m wide structure (OGJ Online, Feb. 8, 2017).
As with the two previous Brent jobs, Pioneering Spirit will transport the Alpha topsides to a nearshore location off the Hartlepool coastline, where it will be transferred to Allseas’ cargo barge Iron Lady for the final leg of its journey by towage up the Seaton Channel and load-in to the quay at Able UK.