Operations, a 47-Year-Old Rig that Has Been Converted Into an FPF Enters a UK port's Dry dock.
At the UK's Kishorn Port (KPL), a 50/50 joint venture between Ferguson Transport (Spean Bridge) and Leiths (Scotland), a former semi-submersible drilling rig that was converted into a floating production facility (FPF) will be retired after decades of service.
A few months ago, Kishorn stated it was housing Northern Producer FPF, formerly known as Nortroll, Ali Baba, and Emerald Producer, of Northern Offshore. In April 2021, this vessel made its way from EnQuest's Don oilfield in the North Sea to the Scottish port.
The Northern Producer FPF, which was originally built by Trosvik Framnaes in Norway in 1976 as an Aker H-3 semi-submersible drilling rig and converted in 1991, upgraded in 1997, and then continued to operate on the fields until the oil and gas player decided to halt production from the field in March 2021 because it had reached its "economic limit."
The floating production unit was welcomed at the dry dock on Sunday, October 8, 2023, according to a report released by Kishorn Port on Monday, October 9, 2023. The dock gates will reportedly be put back in, resealed, and pumped dry in the upcoming days, according to the port. Following that, plans are anticipated to start for the 12,500 Gt's decommissioning, recycling, and eventual reuse.
A huge shout out to KPL, Ferguson Transport & Shipping, the shore-based marine services team, Green Marine (UK) Ltd, Jifmar Scotland, Shearwater Marine Services Ltd, Ross-shire Diving Services Ltd, Chisholm's Recovery Specialists, Interocean Marine Services, and of course our client Northern Offshore Ltd., Kishorn said while providing more details on the decommissioning work for the FPF. We are thrilled to have won the contract to bring the vessel in for decommissioning and recycling because this has been in the works for a while.
We believe that under the terms of the EU recycling license, this will be the first time that work of this sort is performed in a dry dock with a semi-submersible FPV. Once it's dried out, some survey work will be done, and we'll then move through with the appropriate steps in our EU licensing procedure while coordinating closely with SEPA and the asset owner, HSE.
KPL emphasized that the principal contractor, Liberty Industrial, will work closely with the port and its partners to complete the eventual decommissioning, dismantling, and recycling of the Northern Producer FPF.
This declaration follows Kishorn's disclosure that the jack-up rig owned by Noble Corporation had left the port after ten months.
In order to provide lodging services at the Judy field in the UK sector of the North Sea, this rig will begin a ten-month contract with Harbour Energy in December 2023.