Heerema Marine Contractors’ Thialf completed the eight month long campaign to remove the Sable project’s offshore facilities for ExxonMobil Canada.

Thialf, the semi submersible crane vessel, arrived in Canada in early April. The vessel mobilized to the Sable field on May 1 to begin executing a sequence of separate lifts of platform components using a reverse-installation method.

The campaign entailed the engineering, preparation, removal, and disposal (EPRD) of seven platform topsides, seven jackets and 22 conductors.

Transatlantic voyage

A total of five barge loads carrying Sable platform components, weighing approximately 48,000 metric tons, were towed across the Atlantic by the Heerema tugs Kolga and Bylgia.

Components were typically transported from the Sable field to Chedabucto Bay to be prepared (sea-fastened) before their transatlantic voyage.

After dismantling at the Able UK decommissioning yard in Hartlepool, England approximately 99 percent of the material will be recycled primarily into steel.

Work done despite Covid-19 delay

Following a project delay due to the global pandemic in early 2020, an onboard crew of approximately 300 international and domestic workers, aided by support vessels and helicopters, completed the work.

The removals campaign involved multiple crew changes and was completed safely and without a single case of COVID-19.

The Sable offshore energy project was developed in the late 1990s, and produced more than two trillion cubic feet of natural gas and liquids before production finished on December 31, 2018.

Sable provided Nova Scotia with a new clean energy source and helped reduce the province’s reliance on coal and heavy fuel oil as primary energy sources.