Dutch offshore installation and decommissioning contractor Heerema Marine Contractors has this week removed an offshore platform from Ithaca Energy's Jacky field in the UK North Sea.
Ithaca Energy on Tuesday shared a photo of Heerema's Thialf semi-submersible crane vessel carrying a part of the Jacky well head platform.
"This week the unmanned wellhead platform was removed in two parts from the seabed via heavy lift vessel for transportation to the Netherlands for dismantling and recycling," Ithaca Energy said.
The Jacky field is located 19 kilometers east of Scotland’s Moray Firth Caithness coast. It ceased production in 2014.
The three-well abandonment program on the field was completed in June last year using Valaris 101 jack-up drilling rig in June 2020, leaving removal and recycling of the suction-piled, monopole unmanned platform to be removed at a later date.
The platform removal had been scheduled to take place in the third quarter of 2020 but given the complication of Covid-19 related restrictions it was pushed to 2021.
Worth noting, AIS data by both VesselsValue and MarineTraffic show that Heerema Thialf vessel's next destination is the Goldeneye platform in the UK North Sea.
Goldeneye is located approximately 100 km northeast of the Aberdeenshire coast, Scotland, and was operational as a gas-producing field from 2004. It is a wellhead platform, with a 1,400 tonnes topside, 5 platform wells in 120m water, with a direct tie-back to the St Fergus onshore facility. Cessation of Production was granted in March 2011.
The decommissioning plan for the platform was approved in November 2019, and the removal of the topsides, jacket and related subsea infrastructure is anticipated to be completed in 2021, according to info on Shell's website. Shell expects that over 97% of the materials brought to shore will be re-used or recycled.
Offshore Engineer has reached out to Heerema Marine Contractors seeking more info on the nature of Thialf's presence at the Goldeneye site. We will update the article with any response we may receive.