ESSO AUSTRALIA has secured Allseas’ massive Pioneering Spirit to remove up to ten decommissioned oil and gas rigs from the Gippsland Basin in Bass Strait.
Built at the DSME shipyard in South Korea (2011–14), the twin-hulled vessel is 382 m long and 124 m wide. At the bow is a slot, 122 m long and 59 m wide, that enables Pioneering Spirit to move around a platform and lift and transport entire topsides using eight sets of horizontal lifting beams.
The combined weight of the Esso platforms is approximately 60,000 tonnes but Pioneering Spirit is capable of lifting entire platform topsides of up to 48,000 t and jackets up to 20,000 t in a single piece. Allseas says this significantly reduces the amount of offshore work associated with installation and decommissioning, moving the work onshore where it is safer and more cost effective.
Under this contract – the first time Pioneering Spirit’s industry-defining single-lift technology will be employed in Australasia – up to 12 topsides and 11 jackets will be removed in single lifts during a 3-4-month campaign, starting in late 2027, and transferred to barges or vessels for load-in to the Barry Beach Marine Terminal in Gippsland for dismantling and recycling by a separate onshore contractor.
“This landmark decommissioning project represents a significant milestone for Allseas in Australia,” Evert van Herel, GM Allseas Australia, said. “Over the past 20 years, we’ve built a strong track record delivering subsea pipelay and construction services for major greenfield projects in these waters. It’s an honour to now bring our expertise to the first removal of platforms of this scale from Australian waters.”
Work is already underway, with engineering and project management teams in Perth and Melbourne leading the effort, with specialist support from our Delft and Kuala Lumpur offices.
The offshore construction vessel commenced offshore operations in 2016 with removal of the 13,500 t Yme production unit offshore Norway.
The vessel redefined heavy lifting with the single-lift removal of Shell’s iconic 24,000 t Brent Delta platform topsides from the North Sea in April 2017 – a world record for an offshore lift.
In June 2018 Pioneering Spirit executed the fastest installation of a large, fully completed topside, and heaviest single-lift installation to date, when it set down Equinor’s 22,000 t Johan Sverdrup DP topsides on its jacket offshore Norway.
In 2022, Pioneering Spirit surpassed the 330,000 t mark for lifted platform weight.
A new world record for the heaviest lift ever performed was set in July 2024, when Pioneering Spirit removed the last platform of the Shell Brent field in the North Sea; Brent Charlie – with topsides weighing 31,000 t.
