VIDEO: First module for Sverdrup drilling platform on its way to Norway

The main support frame (MSF) module for Statoil’s Johan Sverdrup drilling platform has sailed away from Thailand to its location offshore Norway.

The Johan Sverdrup drilling platform will consist of three modules, built at three different yards.

Oil services company Aibel recently completed the MSF module, which was the company’s largest individual delivery to date. Weighing 10,800 tons and the size of a football field, the module was originally scheduled for departure in July. However, the transport to Norway has been postponed to the beginning of August.

The MSF module was built at Aibel’s own yard in Thailand while the second one, the drilling support module (DSM), is being built at Aibel’s Haugesund yard. The third module is being built by Aibel’s collaboration partner Nymo in Grimstad. This is the drilling equipment set (DES) module, which is also the smallest.

The plan is for the second module to be mechanically complete on August 22 and the DES will leave Nymo on August 25.

On Tuesday, August 8 Aibel released a video showing 19 months of construction of the MSF module in Thailand and its departure from the yard.

Prior to sail-away, the module was rolled onboard GPO Heavylift’s new heavy load carrier vessel, the GPO Grace, in late July. The vessel then headed to Norway in early August where the module will be lifted by Heerema’s heavylift crane vessel Thialf.

The assembly will take place in Klosterfjorden, north of Haugesund, during the first half of September.

Afterward, the barge with the three modules will be towed to Haugesund, where it will lie alongside the quay. The integration work at the yard begins on September 25. From November and until the platform leaves the yard in Haugesund in June or July next year, Statoil will be testing the equipment on board.

Offshore Energy Today Staff