Watching the World Long and short routes to abandonment

With David Knott from London Norway and U.K. have the same official strategies for abandonment of offshore installations. Both governments say each structure's disposal method should be chosen on merit. But a plan for abandonment of Norway's Northeast Frigg field shows, when compared with U.K.'s work on disposal of the Brent spar loading buoy, how differently the two governments interpret this same policy.

Jan. 22, 1996

3 min read

With David Knott
from London

Norway and U.K. have the same official strategies for abandonment of offshore installations.

Both governments say each structure's disposal method should be chosen on merit.

But a plan for abandonment of Norway's Northeast Frigg field shows, when compared with U.K.'s work on disposal of the Brent spar loading buoy, how differently the two governments interpret this same policy.

On Jan. 12, Elf Petroleum Norge AS let a 95 million kroner ($15 million) contract to Stavanger's Kvaerner Installasjon AS and Stolt Comex Seaway AS to remove and abandon Northeast Frigg facilities.

Northeast Frigg lies in Norwegian North Sea Block 25/1. It was developed using a six well subsea manifold, tied back to the Frigg TCP2 platform, and a 150 m high articulated control tower.

Per Joessang, project manager for the Kvaerner Stolt Alliance, said the plan is that nothing is to be dumped, and all parts of the structures will be reused if possible. The work will take place this summer.

Northeast Frigg

The Northeast Frigg wellhead template will be resmelted, and flow lines and cables will be destroyed on land. The steel articulated column will be laid on a bed of rock to form a breakwater for a marina at Tau, near Stavanger.

Joessang said the tower's quarters and work deck unit will serve as a training facility by North Sea Drilltrainer AS at Tau. This company provides instruction in platform safety routines.

And, with a typically Norwegian touch, the tower's 45 by 50 m concrete base will be anchored and used as a floating jetty at a trout and salmon farm.

Britain's attempts last year to dispose of Brent field's idle oil loading buoy resulted in public protest against the U.K. government and field operator Shell U.K. Exploration & Production (OGJ, Nov. 27, 1995, p. 23).

The original plan to dump the spar in deep water is still officially one of the options. U.K. Energy Minister Tim Eggar has said any new proposal will be judged against deepsea dumping as an environmental benchmark.

Brent spar

Shell is currently studying 400 proposals from around the world for disposal of its Brent spar. A Shell official said a long list of potential disposal plans is being drawn up, which will be whittled down to a short list.

The official said many of the suggestions fell into a few generic approaches: 43% were for disposal, 23% for treatment as waste, 11% for alternative uses, 5% for outright purchase, and 18% miscellaneous.

Many suggestions were for reuse of part or all of the Brent spar for leisure purposes such as floating hotels or casinos. These have shown a lack of understanding of the size of the installation, which is 144 m high.

Others ideas include reuse as a civil or military observation tower, for aquaculture such as fish farming, for wind or wave power generation, and to start a rigs to reefs program.

Northeast Frigg is likely to be abandoned long before the Brent spar. Yet despite the U.K.'s first attempt at a major abandonment being in complete contrast with Norway's, it appears the fate of the Brent spar may not be so different to that of Northeast Frigg after all.