GALLERY: ‘Pioneering Spirit’ sets world record with Brent Delta lift

Allseas-owned dynamically positioned single-lift installation/decommissioning and pipelay vessel Pioneering Spirit has removed Shell’s 24,000 t Brent Delta platform topsides from the UK North Sea setting what the company claimed was the world record in lifting. 

Following its arrival to the Brent field on Thursday, the vessel performed the lift on Friday, April 28, 2017.

The Shell-operated Brent field, located 115 miles north-east of the Shetland Islands, has produced around three billion barrels of oil equivalent since production started in 1976, which is almost 10% of UK production.

Located in the Brent field, approximately 186 km off the north-east coast of Shetland, the Brent Delta topsides sat on a three-legged gravity-based structure which stands in 140 m of water.

The topside has since been sea-fastened on board Pioneering Spirit for transport to the Able UK decommissioning yard in Teesside, North East England where it will be recycled over the course of 12 months.