• Subscribe
  • Magazine
  • Videos
  • Webcasts
  • Events
  • About Us
  • Exclusive Content
  • Best Places to Work
    1. Regional Reports
    2. North Sea & Europe

    Pioneering Spirit in port for North Sea jacket delivery

    April 26, 2022
    Allseas’ Pioneering Spirit has delivered the Ninian Northern production platform jacket to Lerwick Port Authority’s Dales Vow Base in northern Scotland.
    Courtesy Allseas
    Allseas’ Pioneering Spirit removed the 8,500-metric ton, 83-m (272-ft) tall steel structure in a single lift last week from the Ninian field in the North Sea.
    Allseas’ Pioneering Spirit removed the 8,500-metric ton, 83-m (272-ft) tall steel structure in a single lift last week from the Ninian field in the North Sea.

    Offshore staff

    LERWICK, UK — Allseas’ Pioneering Spirit has delivered the Ninian Northern production platform jacket to Lerwick Port Authority’s Dales Vow Base in Shetland, northern Scotland for dismantling/recycling. 

    The vessel removed the 8,500-metric ton, 83-m (272-ft) tall steel structure in a single lift last week from the Ninian field in the North Sea, 100 mi (161 km) north-east of the Shetland Islands. 

    According to Lerwick Port Authority, this is the first time Pioneering Spirt has operated at a quayside in a UK port.  

    The vessel was due to use its 5,000-metric ton (5,511-ton) capacity crane will initially lift steel support structures, which were employed in 2020 for delivering the Ninian Northern topside, onto a barge for removal and re-use. This will clear the way for load-in of the jacket. 

    Pioneering Spirit was then due to transfer to mid-voe to transfer the jacket via Allseas’ Iron Lady barge to the Base. 

    The plan was to load-in the structure to a heavy-duty pad developed by the Authority in 2020 where the Veolia/Peterson partnership decommissioned the topside. 

    The same two companies will dismantle and recycle the jacket over an eight-month period. 

    Ninian’s original operator Chevron installed the eight-legged drilling and production platform in 1978. Production started in 1980 and ceased in 2017. 

    04.26.2022