Two of the first topside modules destined for a major oil project West of Shetland sailed away this week from a shipyard in Korea.
The first of the new Clair Ridge platform’s quarters and utilities (QU) modules left the Hyundai Heavy Industries Co (HHI) yard in Ulsan. The remaining two modules are expected to sail in the next few days.
BP’s £4.5billion Clair Ridge project, 46 miles West of Shetland, is due to start production in 2016 and expected to keep the UK producing oil beyond 2050.
The modules will sail along the South China Sea, through the Sunda Strait, across the Indian Ocean, around the Cape of Good Hope and then past Africa, across the Bay of Biscay, through the English Channel and the North Sea, before finally arriving west of Shetland.
The platform modules are due to arrive in the North Sea early June after which the installation and then the hook up and commissioning phases of the project will commence.