Sea Platform News

The heads of NATO and the European Commission flew on Friday to a North Sea platform bigger than the Eiffel Tower in a visit underlining Norway's importance for gas supplies since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.The Troll A platform extracts gas from Norway's biggest gas field. After a drop in Russian flows, the Nordic country last year became the largest gas supplier to the EU.NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will discuss the protection of infrastructure and gas supplies to Europe with Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere…

SHADOWCAT and Triton Submarines have collaborated to develop and introduce a new Launch and Recovery Craft (LARC) dubbed SHADOWLARK. Designed by Incat Crowther, SHADOWLARK is a package priced under $10m for delivery in less than 14 months, a package that includes a 24-m LARC designed to carry a Triton 3300/3 MKII submersible, a submersible designed to comfortably seats three people (pilot and two guests) and dive to depths as great as 1,000m (3,300 ft.) for up to 12 hours.“The submersible market targeting yachting was essentially created by Triton.

Danish shipping company J. Lauritzen has selected Marlink to deploy fully integrated and managed IT services on all Lauritzen Kosan managed gas carriers. The solution will be based on Marlink’s ITLink portfolio, with the KeepUp@Sea platform enabling automation of software and security updates, network and PC health monitoring and remote access for fast issue resolution. Once implemented, Lauritzen Kosan will benefit from a fully standardized ICT setup across its fleet, and have…

The SMM 2018 scheduled to take place September 4-7, 2018, in Hamburg, Germany, is held every two years and is the traditional launching platform for a variety of commercial shipping and shipbuilding technologies. Five new marine technologies to look for in Hamburg include:Dredging TechCompany: HydrexBooth: B7.505Product: Dredging innovationHydrex will unveil a new concept developed to protect the marine environment from the spread of contaminated sediments during dredging operations.

The oil and gas industry has just 18 months to upgrade critical release hook systems on offshore lifeboats to meet new regulations imposed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to improve safety at sea. According to the organization, the number of failures during drills and inspections which resulted in casualties or injured crew members has been unacceptably high. Launched in 2011, the IMO regulations state that lifeboat release and retrieval systems must be evaluated and replaced no later than July 1, 2019.

Damen Shipyards Group has teamed up with the global leader in motion compensation access solutions, Ampelmann, to conduct tests with Ampelmann’s L-Type system on board a Damen Fast Crew Supplier (FCS) 5009. Damen is developing its marine access solutions in order to guarantee increased safety, reduced costs and efficiency in the global crew transfer market. As part of this mission, Damen has recently increased its cooperation with a number of access suppliers. On this occasion, the process has resulted in a live demonstration of a combined Ampelmann and Damen solution at a North Sea gas production platform. Teaming up with Ampelmann for a number of tests was a natural route says Damen Business Development Manager David Stibbe.

A drifting barge has missed BP's Valhall platform in the North Sea by some two kilometres, a spokeswoman for the Rescue Coordination Centre for southern Norway told Reuters. "The barge drifted past by some two kilometres. The danger is over. There are no other installations between the barge and the coast of Norway," Borghild Eldoen said in an interview. "It is now up to the owners of the barge to stop it before it reaches the coast."   Reporting by Gwladys Fouche

Talisman Sinopec Energy UK has closed its Buchan Alpha platform in the North Sea, the company said on Wednesday, ahead of an expected severe winter storm. The Buchan Alpha is a floating production installation that contributes less than 5,000 barrels of oil per day to the Forties crude stream. A spokeswoman for the company, a joint venture between Canada's Talisman and China's Sinopec, said 61 non-essential personnel had been taken from the installation to Aberdeen, Scotland, in advance of the storm. "This was completed on December 8. A team of 15 remain on board and production remains shut down for the time being," she said. Britain's Met Office has issued an amber "be prepared" warning for Scotland…

The 'West Alpha' platform, owned by North Atlantic Drilling, has begun drilling the Universitetskaya-1 well in the Kara Sea as part of a joint Rosneft and ExxonMobil project, reports Russian official news agency 'Arctic-info'. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who took part in the launch of works by videoconference, called it an important step in the development of prospective fields in the Arctic. He noted the uniqueness of the project in terms of technologies applied in exploration and environmental enterprises. Earlier, the head of the Russian oil company, Igor Sechin, said that the beginning of the implementation of the joint project between Rosneft and ExxonMobil in the Kara Sea is the most important event for the company in 2014.

Austrian energy group OMV and its partners have started oil and gas production on the Gudrun platform in the Norwegian North Sea, OMV said on Monday. The company said Gudrun was expected to produce in a range of 35 million to 45 million barrels of oil equivalent for OMV, which acquired a 24 percent interest in a major deal with Norway's Statoil last year. OMV added that the production start was on time and below the cost estimate in the plan for development and operation. Operator Statoil holds 51 percent in Gudrun and GDF Suez has 25 percent. (Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Anthony Barker)

The 12,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Harding oil platform in the UK North Sea is being shut down as a precaution after a worker fell off and died early on Thursday, a spokesman for operator TAQA said. "Production is being shut down," the spokesman for the Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. (TAQA) said. "It is what we feel is the appropriate response to the tragic loss of life and the effect it has had on our colleagues on the platform."

Statoil say that a situation arose in which drill fluid was lost as a new well was being drilled on Snorre A, in the Tampen area of the North Sea. Statoil explain that while it was possible to quickly reduce the loss of drill fluid to the reservoir, adverse weather conditions created some uncertainty as to when a vessel might get out to the platform with a new supply of drill fluid. As a purely preventive measure, 117 out of a total 254 platform personnel were transferred to Gullfaks A and Gullfaks C. The well in question is being cemented and closed.

Claxton Engineering Services Ltd, a member of the Acteon Group’s risers, conductors and flowlines business, has celebrated the 10th anniversary of its success with the world’s first rigless platform well abandonment operation. In that first rigless abandonment project, at the Perenco Well A1 in the Leman field, southern North Sea, Claxton used a custom conductor reaction recovery system designed and manufactured specifically to interface with the Leman platform and to retrieve and handle well trees and tubulars. Its full casing recovery package was also required.

Siemens has installed the HelWin1 offshore platform in the North Sea, marking the completion of a stage in German grid connection projects. HelWin1 will link the two offshore wind farms Nordsee Ost and Meerwind to the mainland. Using the Siemens technology installed on the platform, the alternating current power generated by the wind turbines is transformed into low-loss direct current for transmission onto land. Starting next year, this will enable the network operator and purchaser TenneT to supply clean electricity to more than 500,000 German households on the mainland.

Gulfstream Services Inc. (GSI), provider of equipment to the international oil and gas industry, has successfully completed two six figure decommissioning contracts with oil and gas service companies, Helix Well Ops U.K. and Dof Subsea. The Helix contract was part of the BP North West Hutton decommissioning project where GSI tools were used to remove 10- and 20-inch pipelines from the seabed. GSI’s Hydraulic Shear was an effective engineering solution in the situation due to the quick boat to boat times.

TAQA, the global energy company based in Abu Dhabi, confirms a hydrocarbon release detected in one of the Cormorant Alplha platform legs. The hydrocarbons were discovered at 09.40 hours local UK time on Saturday, 2, March during maintenance work. The platform and all pipeline infrastructure were shut down as a precaution and the company removed 71 non-essential personnel from the platform via crew change flights, reporting everyone safe and well. TAQA personnel are addressing…

'Observatory' advisory group of Costa Crociere managers, academics & salvors, brief  the local Giglio community on progress. At the periodic meeting of the 'Observatory' with the Giglio community, president Maria Sargentini, accompanied by Costa Crociere managers, Rome La Sapienza University researchers and Titan/Micoperi Consortium experts, updated the local population on recovery operations and described the progress being made on the characterisation of water inside the wreck.

Autoship Systems Corporation (ASC) of Vancouver, Canada announced the installation of its Autoload onboard stability software on Gjøa, one of the largest projects in the North Sea today. Gjøa's recoverable reserves are approximately 82 million barrels of oil and condensate and roughly 40 billion standard cubic metres of gas. More than 200 km of pipeline are to be laid at Gjøa as well as the cable that is going to supply the platform with power from shore. It will be the first floating platform to get its electricity from the mainland. This will mean a yearly reduction in emissions to the environment of 250,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Autoload is a real time monitoring and simulation tool for planning vessel stability.

Pipeline engineering experts, STATS Group, has completed an isolation project on behalf of AMEC to allow maintenance and replacement works on the North Everest platform in the central North Sea. The workscope covered three maintenance valves and one ESD valve on a 20-inch gas import line onboard the BG-operated platform. After a detailed site survey and piggability study, STATS decided the best solution was to use a tethered Tecno Plug pushed by stem bar to location from a temporary launcher.

The leaking hydrocarbons are believed to be coming in the well from a rock å which is above the producing reservoir of the Elgin field. The volume of this gas ingress is therefore difficult to estimate. Reports from Oil Spill Response (OSRL) surveillance flight indicate that the gas cloud is still stable and is heading away from Elgin facilities. Total confirms that the gas leak remains ongoing although the situation is currently stable. The precise cause of the gas leak is still being investigated and efforts continue to focus on bringing it under control.

Dong Energy is implementing a permanent repair solution necessary to restore the integrity of the Danish North Sea platform Siri. The background for the repair work is that DONG Energy during a routine inspection in August 2009 discovered cracks in the nose of the subsea oil tank of the Siri platform. No pollution happened but the production was shut down for five months as a safety measure and re-started January 2010 after a temporary solution had been installed. Following the progress of the project, the repair cost estimate has been increased from the initial expected DKK 2 billion to DKK 3.5 billion of which DKK 0.6 billion was incurred in 2011.

Hellenic Shipyards has secured a contract for the construction of a sea platform to accommodate offshore wind-parks for location in the Baltic and . The classification of the 70 metre platform Thor has been entrusted to Germanischer Lloyd. Mr. Ioannis Manolemis, Member of Hellenic Shipyards Board of Directors, and Dr. Hermann J. Klein, Member of the Executive Board Germanischer Lloyd signed the contract today at Posidonia. The platform is 70 metres long, 40 metres wide, has a draft of 6 metres and can be operated in water depths of up to 50 metres.

The PSA has decided to conduct an investigation due to, among other factors, the significant potential of the incident. The leak occurred in connection with valve testing on the drilling, production and accommodation facility HMP1 on the Heimdal field. It has not yet been determined how much gas leaked out, but the gas leak was substantial and resulted in a serious situation on the facility. There were 98 people on the facility when the leak was discovered. No one was injured in the incident. The purpose of the investigation is to ascertain the course of events and identify trigger factors and underlying causes. The investigation will result in a report which will be published at www.ptil.no.