Pioneering Spirit removes North Sea Valhall QP jacket

Offshore staff

DELFT, the Netherlands – Allseas’ heavy-lift vessel Pioneering Spirit has delivered the Valhall quarters platform (QP) jacket to Aker Solutions’ decommissioning facilities at Eldøyane in Stord, Norway.

According to Allseas, the upper and lower sections were crane-lifted onto the quayside on Saturday morning. After dismantling, 100% of the material will be recycled primarily into steel.

Earlier this month, the Pioneering Spirit crane-lifted the 2,500-ton lower jacket section out of the southern Norwegian North Sea using in-house designed, fabricated, and installed lifting tools.

Machinefabriek Schaap cut, machined, and assembled the hooks from 690 grade steel leftover from the JLS beams, while Allseas Fabrication delivered the spreader bars and hook integration with lifting/operating frames and hydraulics. Design and procedures were drawn up by a team from Allseas’ Heavy Lift and Innovations departments.

Cuts to the jacket legs and holes for the hooks were performed from the company’s offshore construction vessel Oceanic. The vessel also provided ROV support.

The 800-ton upper jacket section was also removed.

In June 2019, the Pioneering Spirit removed the 3,800-ton QP topsides, the first of the three original structures at Valhall that will go as part of Aker BP’s modernization of the field center.

07/07/2021