Veolia won a contract to decommission the 14,000-tonne Yme oil platform in the Norwegian North Sea.
The doomed Talisman Yme will be removed and towed in a single lift from its current North Sea location and be moved to Lutelandet in South West Norway to be dismantled by Veolia.
Once the platform arrives in mid-2015, Veolia’s goal is to the recycle 99.7% of Yme at Lutelandet. The Yme platform, which is about 72m long and 87m high, is said to contain valuable material, including precious metals, iron, steel and electrical items.
Veolia says it will also enter into a long-term agreement with its Norwegian partner, Lutelandet Offshore, to develop the deepwater quay and site at Lutelandet.
According to Veolia, the US$1.6 billion a year market has some 2000 platforms that need to be decommissioned over the next 10 years.
Allseas’ mega-vessel, the Pieter Schelte, will lift off the platform's topsides; the very first job for the Pieter Schelte.
“This will be a difficult test because the platform is wobbly, by the nature of the deficiencies in the design of the structure,” Allseas' Edward Heerema told OE.
The decision to scrap the Yme platform came in March 2013 in a $470 million settlement between SBM Offshore and Talisman. It was reported by OE that the completion of the mobile offshore production unit (MOPU) suffered delays after operator Talisman raised concerns over its substructure in 2012. Approximately 140 workers had been evacuated as a safety precaution.
In 2013, Talisman said delays to first production on the Yme project had been a great disappointment to the Yme joint venture partners that included Lotos, Norske ADEC and Wintershall.
The Yme field was discovered in 1987 and produced about 50MMbbl from 1996 to 2001 until low oil prices led to its closure by operator Statoil.
Image of Veolia’s decommissioning site in Lutelandet - Norway from Veolia.
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