Aasta Hansteen topside begins journey to Norway

The heavy transport vessel Dockwise White Marlin, carrying the 24,000-tonne Aasta Hansteen topside, has begun its journey from Ulsan, South Korea, to Norway.

According to latest AIS data, the White Marlin and the topside are several kilometers off the city of Busan and, if all goes as planned, will make their first stop in Port Louis, Mauritius, on October 21.

Offshore Energy Today reported earlier this week that the Aasta Hansteen topside was loaded up on the vessel and was ready to set sail for Norway.

According to the project operator, Statoil, the journey from the shipyard in South Korea to Norway will take two months. The topside will be mounted on top of the massive spar substructure upended on the field in early July.

The substructure for the world’s largest spar platform arrived from Hyundai Heavy Industries’ facility in Ulsan, South Korea to Norway on June 18, 2017, after a 14,500 nautical mile journey at sea.

When the topside and spar substructure are put together, the gas platform will be towed to the Norwegian Sea and the Aasta Hansteen field during 2018.

The Aasta Hansteen platform will be Norway’s first spar platform in production. Spar is a cylindrical, partially submerged offshore drilling and production platform that is particularly well adapted to deepwater.

The gas discovery – previously named Luva – is situated at a depth of 1,300 meters in the Vøring area, 300 kilometers from land.

Statoil is the operator of the field with Wintershall, OMV, and ConocoPhillips as partners.

Offshore Energy Today Staff