First new Tyra platform set to sail away from Singapore

The first new platform for the TotalEnergies-operated and delayed Tyra project, located in the Danish sector of the North Sea, is now ready to sail away from a yard in Singapore.

The Tyra project is operated by TotalEnergies with a 43.2 per cent interest with Noreco (36.8 per cent) and Nordsøfonden (20 per cent) as its partners.

Located off the coast of Denmark, the facilities at the Tyra field represent a key infrastructure for the country as more than 90 per cent of natural gas is processed and sent to shore via the Tyra facilities.

TotalEnergies is currently working on a redevelopment of the Tyra field, which has become necessary due to the natural subsidence of the reservoir. The production was temporarily shut-in in September 2019.

Once redeveloped and at peak production, the completion of the Tyra project will enable the supply of around 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, i.e. total production of 200 million barrels over the next 25 years. 

In an update on Monday, Noreco said that a transportation vessel BigRoll Beaufort was ready for sail away of the first new Tyra platform outside of Sembcorp Marine’s yard in Singapore. No further details were revealed regarding the timing of the sail away and its duration.

Offshore Energy has reached out to TotalEnergies, Noreco, and Sembcorp Marine, seeking further details about this milestone. A spokesperson for Noreco told us that the sail away has not happened yet but it is in preparation. More details will be known as the sail away date approaches.

According to the latest AIS data, the BigRoll Beaufort vessel is currently located at a Sembawang port.

Singapore’s Sembcorp Marine was hired as a subcontractor to fabricate certain platforms and bridges for the Tyra Redevelopment Project back in December 2019. Sembcorp Marine was put in charge of building the wellhead and riser platforms for Tyra East and Tyra West.

Under the contract, the platforms were supposed to be ready in the first quarter of 2021. However, the global market environment experienced significant challenges last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused delays for many oil and gas projects.

TotalEnergies’ Tyra was no different as the first production from the Tyra Redevelopment Project was in late 2020 postponed from 2022 to 2Q 2023. This was due to the Covid-19 related restrictions at the fabrication yards, which impacted the schedule for the new Tyra topsides. A direct consequence of this impact was rescheduling the installation of the four new topsides from 2021 to a 2022 installation window.

Sembcorp Marine has previously confirmed it has been experiencing labour shortages due to the Covid-19 pandemic and related restrictions. These have impacted the execution and scheduled completion of some of its projects.

The redevelopment of the Tyra project consists of three main elements, the removal and decommissioning of the prior Tyra platforms, reuse and 13 meters extension of the current jackets at six platforms that will have new topsides, and a totally new process platform and a new accommodation platform.

The first phase of decommissioning work involved the removal of wellhead and riser platforms topsides as well as 2 bridge modules, 2 flare towers, 8 bridges, support braces and 1 jacket. The second phase included the removal of Tyra East and Tyra West integrated processing and accommodation platforms. This was also the final part of the redevelopment project’s decommissioning campaign.

Come September 2020 and TotalEnergies moved to the next stage of the project with the installation of two new jackets for the Tyra Future Development Project. The jackets form the foundation for the new Tyra process and accommodation platforms and were the first new jacket structures delivered and installed for the Tyra redevelopment project.

The wellhead and riser modules are being built in Singapore, the accommodation module in Italy, and the process module in Indonesia where, due to a high frequency of COVID-19 cases in the area, precautionary measures have been implemented. As a result, parts of the fabrication of the process module have progressed slower than expected. However, built-in contingency still allows the module to sail away during 2022.

TotalEnergies this year also awarded a commissioning services contract for the project, which went to a consortium of Actemium Oil & Gas Commissioning and Semco Maritime.

The contract features several scopes of work, including project management, HSE management, planning, commissioning engineering, onshore sail away preparation from the fabrication yards, offshore commissioning execution, procurement and subcontracting as well as startup assistance.