Aker BP has shared a video on its Facebook of the moment the 6700-ton Valhall drilling platform had its legs blown off.
The rig has been in operation since the 1980s and was removed from the Valhal field as Aker BP is upgrading it for another 40 years of production.
The drilling platform has been transported to Aker Solutions’ facilities at Stord where it will be dismantled and as much as 98% of the structure will be recycled, allowing the platform’s high quality steel to be used elsewhere.
Once the platform was emptied the next step was to topple the giant structure so that it is within reach of large cutting machines.
In this case, as can be seen in the video, the firm opted to use explosives to bring the 6700-ton giant down.
A controversial decision
© Supplied by VeoliaLast year CNR International opted to use a controlled explosion to topple the Ninian Northern platform.
However, some people saw the state the rig was left in as precarious. This prompted the managing director of CNR International UK David Whitehouse to address the controversy at OEUK’s decommissioning conference at St Andrews.
Mr Whitehouse said: “We had quite a lot of people saying ‘gosh that doesn’t look safe, that’s the wrong thing to do’. But in truth, what the team there did is they took an activity and they turned it into an industrial demolition activity.
“Totally safe, no one went near it and it’s that kind of innovation…pieces that are less risky, turn them into industrialised processes and it will drive an immense amount of efficiencies.”
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