Swiss-based offshore construction specialist Allseas has contracted Modern American Recycling Services Europe (M.A.R.S.) for the recycling of EnQuest’s Heather Alpha topsides.
Allseas hired M.A.R.S. for project management and engineering, receipt with load-in assistance, dismantling, and disposal of the 48,000-tonne topsides in the North Sea.
The Swiss firm was contracted by EnQuest last year to use its massive 2014-built heavy lift vessel Pioneering Spirit vessel to remove the Heather topsides in a single lift operation. Preparations for the lift will begin in 2024, with the lift itself scheduled for 2025.
In the subsequent years, M.A.R.S. will recycle the platform in compliance with international, national, and local rules and regulations.
The Heather facility was brought online in 1978 and produced oil until a fire incident in October 2019. It is a fully integrated offshore installation consisting of modular topsides and piled steel jacket, located some 460 kilometres northeast of Aberdeen in a water depth of 143 metres.
The contract for the removal of the Heather upper jacket was awarded to Saipem in January this year. Saipem will deploy its S7000 semi-submersible crane vessel to conduct a single lift and transport the upper jacket structure. This will include nine conductors, caissons, and riser sections.
