Services firm InterMoor said it said it swapped out 12 mooring lines on the Chevron-operated Alba floating storage unit (FSU) currently moored in 140 meters water depth in the UK North Sea.
The scope of the project included engineering, procurement, delivery, vessel supply, and installation of over 3,135 metric tons of mooring equipment including spiral strand wire ropes, chain and connecting links.
Utilizing the Island Offshore anchore handling tug supply ship (AHTS) Island Valiant as the primary installation vessel, and the Swire Pacific AHTS Pacific Duchess as the heading control vessel, InterMoor recovered, installed and tensioned the 12 replacement mooring lines between May and July 2019, the company said.
Operations were completed with three separate equipment mob/demobs which were managed and controlled through ChainCo’s quayside yard in Montrose, UK.
The project was completed on schedule within all design tolerances and with no disruption to the FSU operation throughout.
Discovered in 1984 in Block 16/26, the Alba heavy oil field field lies about 210 kilometers northeast of Aberdeen, in the UK Central North Sea. First oil was achieved in January 1994.
In addition to the FSU (the first purpose-built for the UK sector of the North Sea), field facilities include a fixed steel platform, the Alba Northern Platform, and the Alba Extreme South subsea production center added in 2001.
Alba crude oil is offloaded from the stern of the FSU to a shuttle tanker approximately once per month before being transported to refineries in northwest Europe. Alba gas is used for fuel and the platform is also connected by a gas line to the Britannia platform in which Chevron holds a nonoperated working interest, via a 4-kilometer pipeline.
In 2018 Alba produced a net daily average of 11,770 barrels of liquids. Since first production in 1994, it has produced over 428 million barrels of oil.