Talisman in preps for Yme platform scrapping

The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) has given Talisman Energy Norge AS consent to use the Mærsk Giant jack-up drilling rig as living quarters on the Yme field, in the North Sea.

The Yme field is in the south-eastern section of the North Sea in 77-93 metres of water. The field was first developed in 1995, in production licence 114, with Statoil as the operator. The production period lasted from 1996 to 2001.

In 2006, new licensees in production licence 316/316B, with Talisman as the operator, decided to recover remaining resources with a new MOPU (Mobile Offshore Production Unit). The facility is located on an oil storage tank on the seabed.

Having discovered serious structural defects, in the summer of 2012, Talisman took the decision to deman the Yme facility.

The licensees have since decided to remove the facility from the field.

Talisman, the operator of the field, and SBM offshore, the supplier of the troublesome Yme production platform, last year agreed to decommission the platform after multiple delays, and cracks found in the platform’s legs. The platform was first slated for scrapping in the summer this year, but the decommissioning has been postponed and it is now scheduled to be removed in the summer of 2015.

Veolia Group has won a contract to decommission a 14,000-tonne oil platform in the Norwegian North Sea.

The consent that has now been granted covers the use of the Mærsk Giant mobile drilling rig as living accommodation during preparations for removal. Activities are scheduled to begin in Q3 2014 and last for 4 to 5 months.

Mærsk Giant is a jack-up drilling rig. It is owned and operated by the A.P. Møller-Mærsk Group. It was built in Japan by Hitachi and completed in 1986. Mærsk Giant can operate in water depths of up to 107 metres and accommodates 87 people.