Allseas Removes 17K Ton North Sea Shell Platform

Shell’s 17,000 ton Brent Alpha platform in the North Sea has now been removed, Allseas has revealed.

The Pioneering Spirit, which handled the decommissioning job, will deliver the 44 year old structure to Able UK’s Teesside decommissioning yard in North East England for dismantling and recycling, Allseas outlined. The removal of Alpha was the first offshore lift to utilize Allseas’ in-house developed connection tools.

Brent Alpha is the third of four platforms to be removed from the Brent field. In June last year the Pioneering Spirit removed the 25,000 ton Brent Bravo platform, which took around four hours, according to Allseas. The Brent Delta platform was removed back in 2017, again by the Pioneering Spirit vessel.

In the 1980s, the Brent Field was consistently producing over 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day and by the early 1990s it was supplying 13 percent of the UK’s oil needs and 10 percent of its gas needs, according to Shell’s website.  

The field has generated over $24 billion (GBP 20 billion) in tax revenues, in today’s money, for the UK government and has supported tens of thousands of highly skilled jobs, Shell’s website outlines. The Brent oil and gas field is a 50/50 joint venture between Shell (operator) and Esso Exploration and Production UK, Shell’s website shows. It lies 115 miles north-east of the Shetland Islands in the North Sea.

Allseas describes itself as a world renowned contractor in offshore pipeline installation, heavy lift and subsea construction. The business employs over 4,000 people worldwide and operates a fleet of specialized heavy-lift, pipelay and support vessels, designed and developed in-house, the company’s website states.

The Pioneering Spirit, formerly named Pieter Schelte, is the largest construction vessel in the world, according to Allseas. It commenced offshore operations in 2016.

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