Float-off of Maari Wellhead Platform goes without a hitch
Posted: 21 April 2008
Late last week Clough completed float-off of the Maari Wellhead Platform (WHP) in New Zealand for client OMV New Zealand Limited (OMV) on behalf of the Maari Joint Venturers; OMV, Todd Energy, Horizon Oil (HZN) and Cue Energy (CUE).
The 9,770 tonne WHP arrived in New Zealand waters six days earlier, after sailing from Malaysia in a 22 day dry transport on the semi submersible heavy transport vessel MV Blue Marlin, contracted from Dockwise Shipping B.V. of The Netherlands.
The arrival of the WHP at Admiralty Bay in Nelson gained much local publicity.
The float-off, a weather-dependant activity, was carried out in the topographically sheltered waters of the Marlborough Sounds region on the north coast of New Zealand’s South Island on Thursday afternoon.
"This is another major milestone for both the Maari project and the upturn progress of the Company in general," said a Clough spokesperson for the project.
The float-off comes only a few short weeks after the similarly successful float-over of the topsides for Woodside’s Angel Project in North West Australia, again conducted using one of the Dockwise fleet of vessels.
"The relationship with our subcontractor Dockwise is a strong one and has been developed over a number of years starting with the Bayu-Undan float-over for ConocoPhillips Australia back in 2003," said the Clough spokesperson.
Now that the float-off has been completed the focus of the project is on wet towing the platform from its current location into the field and self-installing in position, which is one of the unique advantages of this design developed by Ove Arup Pty Ltd.
The platform will be installed in the Tasman Sea offshore the west coast of Taranaki.
In Admiralty Bay, Clough has engaged a number of local services under the management of local company Unimar Limited.
"Clough always makes a conscious effort on its project to engage the local communities wherever possible. Given the relative remoteness of the float-off location it was imperative to utilise local support and this has proved to be highly beneficial,"said the Clough spokesperson.
The Maari Wellhead platform is a DrillACE self-installing platform standing 140 metres in height and weighing 9770 tonnes.
Posted by Richard Price, Editor, EnergyME.com
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