Page 24 - Danish Offshore Industry 2020

The Tyra Redevelopment project is not only the most
expensive single project in the Danish part of the North
Sea, it is also the largest. Just the amount of steel in-
volved is equivalent to thirteen Eiffel Towers. This is also
a very complex project, the activities of which are spread
across several continents and include a whole host of
different components which have to fit together in one
way or another. Finally, the project also involves new and
untested elements.

In order to keep track of it all and get the project com-
pleted safely, a global project organisation has been set
up to support and follow up on all of the many activities
being carried out for the project around the world. At
the end of 2019 the project organisation had a staff of
around 300, half of whom are based at the project’s Preparing for the removal of one of the main platforms on
headquarters in Esbjerg while the other half are associ- Tyra East. The green elements will be used when PIONEER-
ated with project activities elsewhere. Since 2016, Vice ING SPIRIT lifts the topside of the legs in late summer 2020.
President Morten Hesselager Pedersen has been the Photo: Total.
project director and the man with the bigger picture. In
an interview with Danish Offshore Industry’s reporter,
Morten Hesselager Pedersen went into some of the spe-
cific challenges to be tackled in connection with the Tyra Patrick Pouyanné, CEO of Total, visiting Esbjerg
28/11 2019. Photo: Total.
Redevelopment project:
Most strikingly, the Tyra Redevelopment project requires
the dismantling and decommissioning of about 50,000
tonnes of steel. That corresponds to seven Eiffel Towers.
So far, work in the Danish part of the North Sea has
consisted of building new fields and expanding existing
facilities. ‘In contrast to this, decommissioning is a new
and untested area, the challenges of which are not made
smaller by the modifications and additions which have
been made to the facilities in the Tyra field over the
years,’ says Morten Hesselager.

The dismantling is in the hands of the Dutch companies
Heerema and Allseas, which will remove the many
platforms in the Tyra field in 2020. While Heerema will
be responsible for the dismantling of the six wellhead
and riser platforms, Allseas’ task is to dismantle the two
combined accomodation and process modules in Tyra
East and Tyra West.

Allseas’ powerhouse, PIONEERING SPIRIT, the world’s largest
special vessel, will carry out the latter task. And power
is needed. While the module in Tyra West ‘only’ weighs
7,000 tonnes, the same as the Eiffel Tower, the weight is
piled on by the Tyra East module’s up to 15,000 tonnes,
equivalent to 10,000 cars or just over two Eiffel Towers.
The two major platforms will be sailed to Frederikshavn,
where they will be cut up or decommissioned at the
relatively newly established Modern American Recycling
Services’ yard. This will ensure that over 95 % of the mate-
rial from the platforms will be re-used in accordance with
the requirements which Total have secured in the tender
documents. The same is true of the six wellhead and riser
platforms which Heerema will sail to be decommissioned
at the Sagro yard in Vlissingen in the Netherlands after
dismantling Tyra.

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