Ithaca Energy has employed Heerema’s Thialf heavy lift vessel, the second largest in the world, to remove its small Jacky installation, around 12 miles east of the Moray Firth.
The Jacky field was developed as a tie-back to the nearby Beatrice facilities, with first oil achieved in 2009.
Production from Beatrice halted in March 2015.
The decommissioning plan for Jacky was approved in 2018, with complete removal of the small wellhead platform, jacket and suction piles, as well as plugging and abandonment of three wells.
Jacky has been on standby powered by green electricity while it awaited decom thanks to a project from Aberdeen-headquartered Wood and Netherlands-based Amphibious Energy.
The wellhead platform is now being transported to the Netherlands for dismantling.
In a social media post, Ithaca said: “It’s been an exciting start to the month, with Ithaca’s decommissioning team busy at the Jacky field located 19km east of Scotland’s Moray Firth Caithness coast.
“This week the unmanned well head platform was removed in two parts from the seabed via heavy lift vessel for transportation to the Netherlands for dismantling and recycling.”
Ithaca has a 52.5% stake in the field while project partner Dyas has 47.5%.