After fast-track removal, Pioneering Spirit takes latest Valhall load to Stord

Allseas’ giant vessel Pioneering Spirit is back in Stord, Norway to deliver multiple decommissioned platform facilities removed from the Valhall field complex, located in the North Sea offshore Norway.

As informed by Allseas on Thursday, the world’s largest vessel arrived in Stord that day with the entire production and compression (PCP) platform topsides, the upper section of the original drilling platform (DP) jacket, and connecting PCP bridges. This follows last month’s removal and subsequent delivery to the Aker Solutions disposal yard in Stord of the 5800-tonne DP topsides by Pioneering Spirit.

Preparations are underway in Stord to prepare Allseas’ barge Iron Lady for transfer and load-in of the 14,100-tonne PCP topsides. The 3000-tonne DP jacket and two bridges will be loaded directly onto the quayside.

According to Allseas, Pioneering Spirit for the first time deployed both its topsides lift and jacket lift systems during a single campaign. The entire campaign took only a few days to complete.

“It was a fast-track removal operation,” said Project Manager, Eric van der Plas. “There were plenty of rewarding moments for all team members involved in what was a strict sequence of events from start to finish. A big compliment to the whole team for a job well done.”

Safe and swift removal of the PCP topsides on 7 June was the final lift of the latest Valhall campaign. It came just 24 hours after the removal of the adjacent DP jacket, after the final leg cutting by supporting vessel Oceanic, and prior to that the PCP bridges.

This Valhall campaign is part of the frame agreement Allseas signed with Aker BP in 2017 to provide transport, installation, and removal services on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

Pioneering Spirit removed the accommodation platform (QP) topsides in 2019 and the jacket in 2021. The platform was the first of the three original structures (QP, DP and PCP) to be removed as part of the modernisation of the Valhall field centre by Aker BP.

Future campaigns are planned for the removal of the PCP jacket, as well as the unmanned Hod A platform, 13 km to the south of Valhall, and the 2/4-G jacket on the Ekofisk field, 24 km north.