Pioneering Spirit vessel removes Valhall QP topside

Aker BP’s original accommodation platform at Valhall (QP) field in the southern part of the North Sea has been removed by the Allseas-owned giant vessel Pioneering Spirit. This was the first of the original structures at Valhall to be removed as part of the modernization of the Valhall field center.

Executed in the morning of Friday 14 June, the single-lift operation took two hours to complete from positioning Pioneering Spirit around the 3800 t platform to the moment of the lift, Aker BP said on Friday.

According to the company, the actual “fast lift” of the topsides took only 9 seconds and the 109 t bridge connecting the QP topsides to the neighboring drilling platform was removed using one of the vessel’s cranes on Tuesday, June 11.

“Together with Allseas and the team at Pioneering Spirit, we have successfully concluded two years of engineering, planning and pre-lift preparations. The safe and efficient removal of the QP platform is an important milestone for Valhall and for Aker BP,” says Per Mikal Hauge, Vice president Valhall asset.

Removal of the QP topsides is the first job for Pioneering Spirit under the frame agreement which Allseas signed with Aker BP in 2017 to provide transport, installation and removal services for the Valhall field. The QP topside will be transported to and disposed at the Kvaerner disposal yard at Stord.

A giant field

The Valhall field was discovered in 1975 and put into production in 1982 with three installations; a process / production platform, a drilling platform and an accommodation platform (QP). More recently a wellhead platform (WP) and Injection platform (IP) was installed. Lastly, production from the new process / accommodation platform (PH) started in January 2013.

The QP topsides is the first of the three original structures to be removed from the field center. The remaining platforms at the field center – IP, WP and PH – and the Flank platforms will produce for many, many years to come.

Valhall and Hod have passed one billion barrels of oil equivalents (oil, gas and NGL) produced – thus more than three times what was expected at the opening of the field in 1982.

“The continuous high activity level at Valhall, with simultaneous drilling operations, plugging and abandonment of old wells, removal of the original three platforms, multiple new wells and a the new Flanke West platform soon to be installed demonstrates our determination to reach the ambition of another billion barrels produced from the area,” says Hauge

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