Heerema Marine Contractors and DeepOcean have contracts with oil and gas firm Spirit Energy in the UK for removal and disposal services of the operator’s North Sea decommissioning portfolio.
Heerema said it would cooperate with DeepOcean, the subsea asset removal contractor, to deliver the safe and sustainable decommissioning of the platforms.
The EPRD (engineering, preparations, removal, and disposal) contract includes both firm work and optional scope that can be called-off by the Spirit Energy. Heerema Marine Contractors will lead its part of the work out of its offices in Leiden (NL) and London (UK).
The firm scope involves the EPRD of the Audrey A, Audrey B, and Ensign platforms, while the optional work includes an additional 5 platforms in the southern North Sea region of the UK and Dutch sectors.
Heerema’s scope is to remove and recycle the platform topsides and substructures, while DeepOcean will be responsible for removing and recycling all subsea assets at the relevant fields. The combined weight of the firm scope topsides and jackets is around 7000 metric tons, and will be recycled in the UK. The platforms are located in water depths of between 23 and 26 meters. Heerema did not say which crane vessel it would use for the project, nor when the project was expected to take place.
DeepOcean said that the subsea scope will engage a variety of vessels within the DeepOcean fleet and typically includes subsea structures, rigid pipelines, flexibles, umbilical, and mattresses as well as providing associated engineering and project management services.
Heerema’s Decommissioning Director, Michel Hendriks, said: ‘Decommissioning North Sea platforms is an important component within Heerema’s portfolio, and we are proud to be Spirit Energy’s chosen contractor for the topside and substructure scope. We are also looking forward to working alongside DeepOcean and their team to deliver the safe and sustainable removal of the Audrey A, Audrey B, and Ensign platforms.’
“This is a substantial contract for DeepOcean. We have significantly strengthened our workforce in Aberdeen in the past 18 months to enable us to take on more large projects such as this. We look forward to supporting Spirit Energy’s decommissioning efforts,” says Robin Mawhinney, Head of UK at DeepOcean’s office in Aberdeen.
The value of the contracts was not disclosed.