The 15,300 tonne topsides is the heaviest single lift removal scheduled for this year
EnQuest has completed the removal of topsides from its Heather Alpha platform in the UK North Sea, the London-listed operator said on Thursday.
Allseas’ giant heavy lift vessel, the Pioneering Spirit, carried out the removal with the 15,300 tonne topsides the largest single lift removal scheduled for this year, EnQuest said on Thursday.
“The Pioneering Spirit completed the lift in around 14 seconds, but that astonishing reality was only made possible by three years of meticulous planning, engineering and preparation works,” said EnQuest decommissioning director John Allan.
“After almost 50 years of operations in the North Sea, Heather Alpha’s legacy is to be an exemplar of a best-in-class decommissioning project, from inception to the responsible recycling of its materials.”
Installed in 1977, EnQuest gained the greenlight to end production and decommission the platform in May 2020.
The Heather topsides will be dismantled in Frederikshavn, Denmark, with 95% of the structure expected to recycled and repurposed.
EnQuest has plugged and abandoned more than 80 North Sea wells over the past three years as part of plans to decommission its Heather, Broom, Thistle, Deveron, Alma, Galia and The Dons fields.
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