Schooner, the last major offshore operation under the company’s multi-year North Sea decommissioning programme, was decommissioned by the Netherlands-based Heerema Marine Contractors, using the Thialf semi-submersible crane vessel

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DNO selected Heerema Marine Contractors for decommissioning. (Credit: DNO ASA)

DNO, a Norway-based oil and gas operator focused on the Middle East and the North Sea, has announced the removal of wellhead platform production facilities from the Schooner field, offshore UK.

Schooner is the last major offshore operation under the company’s multi-year North Sea decommissioning programme.

The decommissioning was carried out by the Netherlands-based Heerema Marine Contractors, using the Thialf semi-submersible crane vessel.

DNO said that the platform deck, which weighs 1,200 tonnes, has already been lifted aboard the vessel, and the jacket was removed after the piles had been cut three meters below the seabed.

The deck and jacket have been transported to the Hoondert Yard in the Netherlands, for dismantlement and recycling, said the oil and gas operator.

DNO chief operating officer Chris Spencer said: “We have conducted these operations in a safe, cost-efficient and environmentally responsible manner, coordinating five tier-one contractors and displaying our capabilities as a full life-cycle offshore operator.”

Established in 1971, DNO holds onshore and offshore exploration, development and production licenses in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Norway, the UK, Côte d’Ivoire, the Netherlands and Yemen.

The company has completed plugging and abandonment (P&A) of the nine Ketch wells and the three Oselvar wells in 2021, followed by the 12 Schooner wells last year.

In 2019, DNO obtained operatorship and working interest in the Schooner and Ketch fields in the UK and the Oselvar subsea field in Norway.

The Ketch and Schooner fields are located in the Southern Basin of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) in licence blocks 44/28a and 44/26a, respectively.

The company selected Heerema for the integrated engineering, preparation, removal, and disposal (EPRD) of the Ketch and Schooner platforms, in January last year.

Both platforms were installed by Heerema in the 1990s and were tied back to the Murdoch complex, which is also planned to be decommissioned by Heerema Marine Contractors.