HMC are the main contractors to BP Ltd. for the total removal of the redundant oil platform known as NW Hutton. Located in Block 211/27a of the UK Sector of the North Sea the NW Hutton stands in a water depth of 144m some 130 miles North East of the Shetland Islands. Earlier work has seen the removal of the platforms above water ‘topsides’ modules and attention has now turned to the removal of the remaining, subsurface, jacket structure.

CUT’s innovative Diamond Wire Cutting Machines will be used to sever various jacket members prior to them being lifted to the surface for recycling onshore. Standard diamond wire cutting machines with capabilities of 10, 18, 30 and 50 inches, will be utilised along with a unique modular machine, specially designed and built in-house by Tecnospamec, which has a cutting capability ranging between 60 to 120 inches dependent upon configuration. Commented CUT’s Sales and Marketing Manager, Duncan Griffiths, “Being part of the Tecnospamec Group with their capability to design, engineer and build special ‘one-off’ machines allows CUT to meet any particular client requirement that lies outwith our standard range of Diamond Wire Cutting Machines.”

BP’s N.W. Hutton Platform

CUT’s expertise will be utilised during both the 2008 and 2009 campaigns initially in a contingency basis and then an operation role. To exhibit their technologies capability CUT built a 550 tonne capacity test rig which simulated the cutting of a jacket leg under the type of compressive load it would encounter offshore. The test proved that the target piece could be severed without the Diamond Wire becoming trapped before the cut had finished. The award demonstrates the acceptance of CUT’s Diamond Wire Cutting Technology in the decommissioning of the larger jacket structures normally found in the Northern Sector of the North Sea.

550 tonne Compression Cutting Test