Shell UK’s 31,000-tonne Brent Charlie platform topsides have been removed from the UK sector of the North Sea by Allseas Group SA.
Executed on July 9, the single-lift removal by Allseas’ heavy lift vessel Pioneering Spirit represents the heaviest offshore lift ever performed, according to the service provider. The former production infrastructure will be delivered to Able UK’s Seaton Port plant in Hartlepool, northeast England, for disposal where more than 97% of the materials are expected to be recycled.
Brent oil and gas field lies 115 miles northeast of the Shetland Islands. The decommissioning project comprises three concrete-based and one steel jacket platforms. To date, 98% of all materials from Delta (2017), Bravo (2019), and Alpha (2020) topsides have been recycled and Allseas has removed and transported close to 100,000 tonnes of topsides weight to Hartlepool for disposal (OGJ Online, Feb. 8, 2017).
Alex Procyk | Upstream Editor
Alex Procyk is Upstream Editor at Oil & Gas Journal. He has also served as a principal technical professional at Halliburton and as a completion engineer at ConocoPhillips. He holds a BS in chemistry (1987) from Kent State University and a PhD in chemistry (1992) from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
