Allseas has been selected to remove the 48,000 t Statfjord A platform. It will be the heaviest lift for Allseas' heavy lift and pipelay vessel Pioneering Spirit to date. To perform the lift safely, the vessel's lifting capacity will have to be increased.
The contract was awarded by Equinor Energy and includes the removal, transfer, load-in to shore and disposal of the 48,000 t Statfjord A platform topsides. The Pioneering Spirit will remove the topsides from its concrete gravity based substructure in one piece after 2022.
Pioneering Spirit's Capacity to Be Increased
At 48,000 t, the topsides has a weight equal to Pioneering Spirit’s current single-lift capacity. Therefore, prior to the lifting operation, the capacity of the vessel’s revolutionary motion-compensated topsides lifting system (TLS), developed in-house, will be increased to a capacity larger than needed for this removal in order to take into account any weight deviations.
Last Leg of Transport by Cargo Barge
Allseas has selected Kvaerner AS to demolish the topsides at its Stord disposal facility on the west coast of Norway. The topsides will be transferred from Pioneering Spirit to Allseas’ special-purpose cargo barge Iron Lady for towage to the yard and skidding onto the quay. This barge is capable of bearing the topsides’ enormous weight.
Statfjord A Platform
One of the largest platforms on the Norwegian continental shelf, Statfjord A stands in 149 m (490 ft) of water in the centre of the Statfjord field, located in the northern North Sea, approximately 120 miles west of Bergen. The topsides are 84 m long and 54 m wide.
Picture: Animation still of Pioneering Spirit removing the Statfjord A platform topsides.
