GALLERY: Aasta Hansteen topside ready to set sail for Norway

Norwegian oil company Statoil has shared a photo of the Aasta Hansteen topside loaded up on a heavy transport vessel which will take it to Norway.

Statoil said that “the beautiful lady” weighing 24,000 tons would begin its two-month-long journey from Hyundai’s shipyard in South Korea to Norway “in the next few days.”

The topside will be mounted on top of the massive spar substructure upended on the field in early July.

The substructure for the world’s largest spar platform arrived from Hyundai Heavy Industries’ facility in Ulsan, South Korea to Norway on June 18, 2017, after a 14,500 nautical mile journey at sea.

When the topside and spar substructure are put together, the gas platform will be towed to the Norwegian Sea and the Aasta Hansteen field during 2018.

The Aasta Hansteen platform will be Norway’s first spar platform in production. Spar is a cylindrical, partially submerged offshore drilling and production platform that is particularly well adapted to deepwater.

The gas discovery – previously named Luva – is situated at a depth of 1,300 meters in the Vøring area, 300 kilometers from land.

Statoil is the operator of the field with Wintershall, OMV, and ConocoPhillips as partners.

Offshore Energy Today Staff