Lerwick Harbour's support for west of Shetland Lancaster development

It was delivered to Lerwick from Dubai on board the Jumbo Kinetic which berthed at Mair’s Pier East in mid-June to lift the system from her deck into the water. The Authority’s vessels, Kebisterand Knab then towed the floating buoy to a holding location at Mair’s Pier South.

The buoy is over 20 m in both diameter and height, and weighs approximately 1200 t.

In early July, the harbour vessels moved the buoy to the Shetland port’s Brei Wick area where anchor handling vessels picked up the tow, prior to taking it to the Lancaster field. Anchored to the seabed, it will form part of the Early Production System’s turret mooring system around which the Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel, Aoka Mizu, will weather-vane.

She is currently being upgraded in Dubai, with oil production due to begin from Lancaster, around 150 km west of Lerwick, in the first-half of 2019. Major contractors on the project are being assisted by Shetland's supply chain.

Lerwick Port Authority Deputy Chief Executive and Harbourmaster, Captain Calum Grains, said: “With the harbour having more than 50 years' experience of the offshore industry, it is great to still be getting involved with a new generation operator and a pioneering project, and to have our plans for handling the buoy well-received by Hurricane.

“The buoy is another example of the versatility of the deep-water port in servicing subsea developments in the North Sea and Atlantic.”

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/offshore-and-subsea/09072018/lerwick-harbours-support-for-west-of-shetland-lancaster-development/