Shell’s Brent Bravo platform has been removed from the North Sea by Allseas’ heavy lift and pipelay vessel Pioneering Spirit.
The 25,000 tonne single-piece removal of the topsides was completed yesterday morning.
The entire lift took four hours, while the fast lift “took only nine seconds”, according to Allseas.
Brent Bravo is the second of four platforms, after Brent Delta in 2017, to be decommissioned and removed from the Brent oil and gas field.
Shell has used Allseas Pioneering Spirit to remove both North Sea platforms.
Allseas said The 410ft tall, 230ft wide topsides were since been sea-fastened on board Pioneering Spirit for transport to the Able UK decommissioning yard in Teesside, North East England.
Upon reaching a nearshore location off the coast of Hartlepool, the topsides will be transferred to Allseas’ cargo barge “Iron Lady” for the final leg of its journey, towage up the Seaton Channel and load-in to the quay at Able UK’s yard for dismantling.
The Brent field lies around 115 miles northeast of Shetland and started production in 1976.
It is the home of the benchmark standard for crude oil still used today.
Almost 400 wellbores have been drilled in the Brent field since 1974.
The campaign to “plug and make safe” has been ongoing since 2004, with all of the Brent wells currently being decommissioned in accordance with Oil and Gas UK guidelines.
Five of the 40 wells at Charlie, which is still producing, have been decommissioned so far.
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