Pioneering Spirit delivers latest Valhall payload
Pioneering Spirit is back in Stord, Norway to deliver multiple decommissioned platform facilities removed from the North Sea’s Valhall field complex, offshore Norway.
The world’s largest vessel arrived in Stord on 9 June with the entire production and compression (PCP) platform topsides, upper section of the original drilling platform (DP) jacket and connecting PCP bridges.
It follows last month’s removal and subsequent delivery to the Aker Solutions disposal yard in Stord of the 5800-tonne DP topsides by Pioneering Spirit.
Preparations are underway in Stord to prepare Allseas’ barge Iron Lady for transfer and load-in of the 14,100-tonne PCP topsides. The 3000-tonne DP jacket and two bridges will be loaded directly onto the quayside.
For the first time, Pioneering Spirit deployed both her revolutionary topsides lift and jacket lift systems during a single campaign. The entire campaign took only a few days to complete, further reinforcing the vessel’s reputation as the “total solution” for offshore heavy lift work.
“It was a fast-track removal operation,” says Project Manager Eric van der Plas. “There were plenty of rewarding moments for all team members involved in what was a strict sequence of events from start to finish. A big compliment to the whole team for a job well done.”
Safe and swift removal of the PCP topsides on 7 June was the final lift of the latest Valhall campaign. It came just 24 hours after removal of the adjacent DP jacket, after final leg cutting by supporting vessel Oceanic, and prior to that the PCP bridges.
This Valhall campaign is part of the frame agreement Allseas signed with Aker BP in 2017 to provide transport, installation and removal services on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
Pioneering Spirit removed the accommodation platform (QP) topsides in 2019 and jacket in 2021. The platform was the first of the three original structures (QP, DP and PCP) to be removed as part of the modernisation of the Valhall field centre by Aker BP.
Future campaigns are planned for removal of the PCP jacket, as well as the unmanned Hod A platform, 13 km to the south of Valhall, and 2/4-G jacket on the Ekofisk field, 24 km north.