ConocoPhillips gives all-clear for Ekofisk removal program
Nick Terdre, Contributing Editor
The final chapter of the Ekofisk I cessation program in Norway is about to begin following the award of a contract for the removal of nine platforms, with options, to Heerema Marine Contractors. Offshore removal operations are due to start next year and to be concluded by 2013. Onshore recycling and disposal, which Heerema has subcontracted to AF Decom, is scheduled to be completed by 2014.
Most of the platforms ceased operations in 1998, when the second phase of Ekofisk development came onstream, and the others prior to that date. The planning for this extensive decommissioning campaign began in the early 1990s, so by the time it has been completed, the whole operation will have taken about 20 years.
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Heerema Marine Contractors is responsible for the Ekofisk platform removals. Here crane barge Hermod removes some of the light structures.
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The Ekofisk cessation plan, which also includes redundant facilities at the satellite Albuskjell, Cod, and Edda fields, was submitted in 1999 and the part relating to platform removal was approved by the Norwegian government in 2001.
The whole scheme, which also includes decommissioning the Ekofisk Tank and removing and disposing of light structures, was costed in 1998 at NKr 8 billion ($1.48 billion). ConocoPhillips declines to give an updated figure, but Mark Miller, general project manager, North Sea Cessation, acknowledges that the cost of services is now considerably higher than 10 years ago. Platform removal is one of the big-ticket items in the cessation plan cost.
While the Ekofisk cessation operation has hit the headlines as the single most extensive decommissioning project in the history of the offshore oil and gas industry, in parallel the field has also been a regular source of news regarding a continuing wave of development. The major redevelopment in 1998 was followed by Ekofisk Growth, which came on stream in 2005, and now ConocoPhillips is gearing up for a further significant investment in new production facilities. Bids for FEED studies were submitted in July. The company believes production could continue to around the middle of the century.
The tender for the main platform removal contract was issued in December 2005, with Heerema announcing its award this March. Its bid was the most attractive overall, says Miller. The extensive time taken to make the award was due to the contract’s wide scope, he adds, and the need for thorough discussion at all levels of the company and its partners in Ekofisk.
One factor weighing in Heerema and AF Decom’s favor was ConocoPhillips’ satisfaction with their performance to date on a NKr 400 million ($73.9 million) contract awarded in 2005 to remove light structures – flare stacks, bridges, and tripod supports – linked to installations at the center and the satellite platforms.
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Volume 68 Issue 9
September 2008
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