Offshore mooring and installation firm InterMoor has completed decommissioning operations for a Gulf of Mexico platform.
The Innovator platform on the Gomez field was shut down by troubled operator ATP Oil & Gas last year after it filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US.
Houston-based InterMoor, which has offices in Aberdeen, developed special procedures for disconnecting risers, umbilicals and mooring lines and then towed the Innovator to Ingleside, Texas.
InterMoor’s involvement with the platform dates prior to 2006 when the firm converted the mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU), then known as the Rowan Midland, into a production platform.
In 2011, Intermoor, which is owned by subsea conglomerate Acteon, then upgraded five of the mooring legs due to new Metocean regulations.
Tom Fulton, InterMoor president, said: “The successful decommissioning of the Innovator proves InterMoor’s technical and operational capabilities for complete floating platform decommissioning in deep water.
“At a time when many operators are looking at life-of-field solutions, we are proud to have played a role at crucial times throughout the development and decommissioning of this offshore asset.”
In January ATP sold its North Sea operations to Petroleum Equity, a newly established private equity firm focused on the upstream oil and gas market in an £80million deal.
ATP Oil and Gas UK – had been developing the Cheviot field off Shetland when its Houston-based parent firm ran into difficulty after failing to recover from a ban on deep-sea drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
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