Piece small jacket removal vs. single lift jacket removal

Abstract

Marine contractors as Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) have made decommissioning part of their core business. Being the owner of two of the largest semi-submersible crane vessels (SSCVs), the choice for single lift jacket removal is straightforward. However, jackets in the Northern North Sea have a weight and height exceeding the crane capacity of these vessels. Moreover, not all jackets have the structural integrity to be single lifted. Piece small jacket removal can be a solution but is often overlooked by the expectance of being labour-intensive and therefore too expensive. This thesis has the objective to develop a methodology for advising a jacket removal strategy based on a decision support model while comparing piece small versus single lift decommissioning. Comparing the two removal methods is done for a single case study of the Kinsale Bravo jacket, provided by HMC.

The budgets of both removal methods, resulting from the case study, are used as input for the decision support model (DSM). Based on the jacket characteristics, the model uses constrains, rules of thumb and calculations to determine several possible outcomes. These outcomes can then be further optimised based on costs, duration and Co2 emissions. Based on either one of these optimisations a removal scenario can be established by the model.