May 1 - Allseas' dynamically positioned single-lift installation/decommissioning and pipelay vessel Pioneering Spirit has set a world lifting record with the safe and successful removal of Shell UK's 24,000 tonnes Brent Delta platform topsides from the No
Located in the Brent field, approximately 186 km off the north east coast of Shetland, the Brent Delta topsides sat on a three-legged gravity-based structure which stands in 140 m of water.
The topsides have since been sea-fastened aboard Pioneering Spirit for transport to the Able UK decommissioning yard in Teesside, in the north east of England.
Brent Delta was one of the first platforms to be built in the very early days of the UK's oil and gas industry. The oil field is made up of four platforms, which at their peak produced more than half a million barrels of oil a day.
Being one of the first platforms in the North Sea, it is now at the end of its life and has to be removed and is one of the first units of major infrastructure to be decommissioned in the North Sea.
More than 100 platforms are forecast to be completely or partially removed over the next decade in the waters of the UK and Norway.
Watch a video of the removal here, courtesy off Allseas.
