Vessels

Allseas removes two Morecambe Bay jackets for Spirit Energy

Aug. 3, 2023

Spirit Energy is experiencing its busiest year to date in decommissioning with offshore campaigns across the Central North Sea, South North Sea and East Irish Sea.

Allseas’ Pioneering Spirit removed the DP3 and DP4 platform installations at the Morecambe Bay development in the East Irish Sea.

Offshore staff

Well-Safe Solutions is executing a 14-well P&A program on the Chestnut, Birch, Larch and Sycamore vessels from the company’s Well-Safe Defender vessel.

WINDSOR, UK — Spirit Energy says the year to date has been its most active to date for offshore decommissioning campaigns across the UK Continental Shelf.

Recently Allseas’ Pioneering Spirit removed the DP3 and DP4 platform installations at the Morecambe Bay development in the East Irish Sea.

The vessel’s jacket lift system was deployed to remove a total of 9,000 metric tons of jacket structures in tandem for direct loading onto Allseas’ Iron Lady barge for delivery to Fife in eastern Scotland for recycling.

In the central UK North Sea, Well-Safe Solutions is executing a 14-well P&A program on the Chestnut, Birch, Larch and Sycamore vessels from the company’s Well-Safe Defender vessel. Chestnut’s well decommissioning has finished, ending the field’s 15-year history.

In the Southern North Sea, Heerema Marine Contractors’ crane vessel Thialf has removed three topsides and three jackets for Spirit, and DeepOcean will remove subsea infrastructure from six assets later in the year.

All structures will undergo recycling at Thompsons of Prudhoe’s site in the Port of Blyth, northeast England.

Donald Martin, Spirit’s head of decommissioning and projects, said, “Combining decommissioning programs and supply chain opportunities at portfolio level has created significant economies of scale with our partners leveraging the capability of their assets. This has also helped create opportunities to share campaign management responsibilities, leading to a lean and agile team. The recent successful completion of the removals of the DP3 and DP4 jackets marks a significant milestone toward our longer-term transition plan for the Morecambe hub being converted into a world-class carbon storage cluster.”

08.03.2023