A North Sea oil platform abandoned last year for being unsafe will not now be dismantled until 2015, it has emerged.
Talisman’s Yme platform, in the Norwegian North Sea, was evacuated last July when cracks were discovered in the support structure.
Originally Talisman was to remove the platform next Summer. However, the company says it will now not move the rig until summer 2015.
“Studies have shown extensions of cracks, and the platform is thus more stable than feared,” Talisman spokesman Grethe Foldnes told Aftenbladet.
“We will wait a little longer to consider more carefully what will be the best method to remove the platform in a secure and robust manner.”
The company will decide later this year on how best to deploy personnel on the abandoned platform, which was criticised by Norway’s Petroleum Safety Authority two years before its evacuation for a number of safety failings.
Technical crews will inspect the platform over the next few months to decide how to move it. Production
Last week a Norwegian offshore helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing on the platform, the first time anyone had been on board in more than a year.