JFO has delivered subsea cutting projects for Subsea 7 on behalf of BP and Premier Oil in the North Sea.
The projects were executed by JFO’s hydraulic shear (the 1950Te) which is affectionately nick-named ‘Tiny’.
Anything but small, Tiny is 4.5 meters long, by 1.2 meters wide and 2.2 meters high, with a jaw which can cut pipes or other subsea infrastructure over 1 meter in diameter.
These versatile tools can be deployed by both remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) or divers and can be hung either horizontally or vertically from the certified lifting points, thereby allowing for access in the most challenging of situations.
The BP project, which was completed at the beginning of May, involved the recovery of flexible pipelines to the west of Shetland in Scotland. Tiny is designed to be deployed from a vessel and lowered by a crane to depths of 3,000 meters and used to cut sections of pipe, which are then removed from the seabed by a 20Te Universal Grab and brought up to the surface on special recovery subsea baskets.
For the Premier Oil job, JFO was called in to work on the decommissioning of subsea wellhead structures at the Balmoral field 200 kilometers north east of Aberdeen in 140 meters of water. Working with Premier Oil, the JFO team developed a bespoke solution that would enable JFO’s topside equipment to work with Premier Oil’s own subsea kit, using Tiny to get the job done. Tiny and the team managed 32 cuts and cleared the seabed of all scrap material – a huge undertaking.
JFO has also just created a new hydraulic shear which is said to be bigger, stronger and more powerful than Tiny. Dubbed ‘Little Nipper’ the cutting tool is 6 meters long, 1.5 meters wide and 1.8 meters high and has a jaw capacity of 1.2 meters. This new product means JFO now has the largest fleet of hydraulic ROV/diver operated shears in the world.