Heerema wins 120,000 tonne UK North Sea decommissioning scope

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Heerema Marine Contractors and AF Offshore Decom have secured three contracts covering the removal and disposal of offshore platforms weighing more than 120,000 tonnes combined in the UK North Sea, setting up a multi year heavy lift and recycling campaign.

The contracts were awarded by an unnamed North Sea operator and cover the engineering, preparation, removal and disposal of three platforms. Heerema said the projects are expected to be completed within the next decade.

For the offshore transport and heavy lift market, the scale of the structures makes the programme a substantial decommissioning logistics operation. Removed infrastructure will have to move from offshore lifting sites to an onshore dismantling facility in Norway.

The platforms will be removed using Heerema’s heavy lift fleet before being transported to AF Environmental Base Vats in Norway for dismantling, recycling and disposal.

Heerema operates four large crane vessels, including Sleipnir, which has a lifting capacity of 20,000 tonnes. The company did not specify which vessels will be assigned to the three newly awarded projects or provide an offshore campaign schedule.

The combined weight of more than 120,000 tonnes illustrates the logistics challenge involved. Unlike installing a new offshore structure, decommissioning requires contractors to work with ageing infrastructure that must first be prepared for safe lifting, transport and processing ashore.

Heerema and AF Offshore Decom will divide the work between the offshore removal campaign and the subsequent handling, dismantling and recycling operations.

The awards add to a growing workload associated with ageing offshore energy infrastructure in the UK North Sea. Heerema has worked on offshore decommissioning projects for nearly three decades, alongside its installation and heavy transport activities.

Marcel de Nooijer, CEO of Heerema Marine Contractors, described the three projects as one of the largest decommissioning scopes currently planned in the North Sea.

“Together, these assets represent one of the largest decommissioning scopes currently planned in the North Sea,” de Nooijer said. “We look forward to working alongside our client and consortium partner AF Offshore Decom to safely prepare, remove and recycle these facilities.”

He added that the UK North Sea is currently the world’s most active decommissioning market.

Once lifted and transported from their offshore locations, the structures will be delivered to AF Environmental Base Vats. The facility will handle the onshore dismantling, recycling and disposal stage of the programme.

The announcement did not disclose the identity of the operator, the names or locations of the three platforms, individual platform weights or the value of the contracts.

Those details will influence the eventual marine logistics requirements, including lift sequencing, vessel deployment and transport planning. The projects nevertheless establish a removal pipeline exceeding 120,000 tonnes of offshore infrastructure, with execution spread across several years.

Heerema said the complete programme is expected to be finished within the next decade, giving the consortium a long term offshore removal and recycling workload in the UK North Sea.

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