Aker BP reports safe removal of Valhall QP topside

TRONDHEIM -- The original accommodation platform at Valhall (QP) in the southern part of the North Sea has been safely removed by the giant vessel Pioneering Spirit. This was the first of the original structures at Valhall to be removed as part of the modernization of the Valhall field center.

Executed in the morning of Friday, June 14, the single-lift operation took 2 hr to complete from positioning Pioneering Spirit around the 3,800-t platform to the moment of the lift. The actual “fast lift” of the topsides took only 9 seconds. The 109-t bridge connecting the QP topsides to the neighboring drilling platform was removed using one of the vessel’s cranes on Tuesday, June 11.

Removal of the QP topsides is the first job for Pioneering Spirit under the frame agreement which Allseas signed with Aker BP in 2017 to provide transport, installation and removal services for Valhall field. The QP topside will be transported to- and disposed at the Kvaerner disposal yard at Stord.