Five of the world’s most powerful tugboats have helped tow the Aasta Hansteen 500 nautical miles, according to Sysla is the most extensive towing operation ever carried out in Norway since the Troll platform was hauled into the field in 1995.
On April 23, exactly eleven days after the tugboat left Stord, the platform was in place. However, extensive work to strengthen it still remains.
On Monday, exactly one week later, the platform was secured with 17 anchors and more than 40,000 meters of anchor rope at a depth of 1,300 meters. Thus, it was anchored well enough to withstand storms lasting a hundred years.
Helge Hagen, marine and subsea projects manager at Statoil, was surprised at how efficient the approximately 250 employees involved in the process have been so far.
– Now I’m a bit annoyed, really. The surgery has gone very well so far. This was a tremendous effort by our team, Subsea 7 who coordinated operations and suppliers. “It’s great to see that our preparations are correct,” said Hagen.
However, the operation wasn’t completely finished, and Hagen didn’t want to celebrate just yet.
– I always like to say that the operation has been very successful so far. Everything can turn around in a split second. “If we make a mistake and one person gets hurt, everything falls apart,” he said.
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The world’s largest platform is heading to Nordland. Now they have carried out a unique operation
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