On Thursday, August 28, Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) completed the first phase of BP’s North West Hutton removal project, located some 130km north east of the Shetland Islands. In this phase the topsides were removed and subsea work was carried out to remove a great number of structures like anodes, conduits and densitometers in preparation for removing the jacket in 2009.

HMC’s semi-submersible crane vessel (SSCV) Hermod commenced the removal campaign on May 7. The challenging project was characterized by an excellent safety record (no LTIs – Lost Time Incidents), which is all the more impressive considering the more than 100,000 man hours spent on the platform. During the 114 days of the project, 18 days of fierce weather downtime was experienced, which caused delays to both Hermod and the five transportation barges.

 

 

One of the successes of this campaign was managing the hook down, removal and subsea activities in parallel. For three months Hermod berthed and fed 360 people (her maximum capacity) working around the clock. The welders did outstanding work with only three cut-outs in thousands of meters of welds, and the marine and tug crews dealt with the ever-changing weather conditions and logistics. All of the 21 lifts were critical in their own respect, in particular the eight which came close to the maximum capacity of the crane. The position of Hermod and the cargo barge was essential to the success of the lifts.

 

The structures have now arrived at the Able recycling yard in Teesside, UK, where they will be dismantled further and largely recycled. HMC will return to NW Hutton in 2009 to remove the jacket.

 

About Heerema Marine Contractors
Heerema Marine Contractors is a world-leading marine contractor for the oil and gas industry. HMC transports, installs and removes all types of offshore facilities and operates three of the four largest crane vessels in the world. HMC is a fully-owned subsidiary of the Heerema Group.

 

Media Inquiries
For more information on this news release, please contact Dido van Holthe, Manager Corporate Communications, phone +31-71-579 9751 or mobile +31 6 51 378 171.

 

NW Hutton Information
Further information on the North West Hutton decommissioning project is available at www.bp.com/northwesthutton.