Marathon Oil’s Alba platform shaping up

Heerema Fabrication Group (HFG) has shared a photo of the topsides for Marathon Oil’s new Alba B3 platform, loaded on a seagoing barge in Zwijndrecht yard in the Netherlands.

Preparations are now under way for a sail away to the Heerema Vlissingen yard, where the lower part of the platform, the jacket, is being built. The topsides is expected to leave the Zwijndrecht yard on Friday, with the arrival to Vlissingen scheduled for Sunday morning.

The Dutch engineering and construction firm Heerema won the contract to build the platform in April 2013.

The Alba PSC B3 compression platform will consist of a topsides with a weight of 4,500 tons, a length of 40 meters, a width of 40 meters and a height of 35 meters. The 4-legged jacket will have a weight of 1,500 tons, a length of 33 meters, a width of 33 meters and a height of 81 meters.

The new Alba B3 greenfield gas compression platform will be bridge-linked to the existing Alba B2 platform, located offshore Equatorial Guinea.

According to the original schedule, as shared by HFG in 2013, the platform should be installed at its offshore location in late 2015, with start-up expected in mid-2016.

Offshore Energy Today Staff