Shell/Esso Brent Charlie Oil Platform, Hartlepool - July 2024
24 hours on a North Sea oil platform.. on land.. in Northeast England
Some background information on the platform itself, as well as the North Sea Brent Oil Field where it was situated
24 hours on a North Sea oil platform.. on land.. in Northeast England
Some background information on the platform itself, as well as the North Sea Brent Oil Field where it was situated
Diagram of the various pipelines showing the significance of Charlie within the operation
The four Brent field platforms
Background
The Brent oil and gas platforms have been a fairly hot topic of conversation in UK UE for a while now, really ever since the decommissioning of the topsides was approved in 2016. The field consisted of four platforms - Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta. Delta was the first set of topsides to be removed from the North Sea in 2017, followed by Bravo in 2019 and Alpha in 2020. This just left one lowly set left; Charlie. For a variety of reasons, four years have passed since the last platform so it’s safe to say that folk have been chomping at the bit to have a slice of this.
All four platforms were removed in the same way, using a ‘single lift’ method which involves using a specially designed vessel to lift the topsides (platforms) from their legs all in one go. The engineering and planning behind this operation is truly staggering and a real marvel to be honest. Go check some videos on YouTube if you want to see a cool timelapse of the lift in action. The vessel used for the lift is called the Allseas’ Pioneering Spirit and is the largest construction vessel in the world, as well as being the largest vessel in the world by gross tonnage. The Pioneering Spirit then brings the topsides to just off the coast of Teeside where they are transferred onto a barge called the ‘Iron Lady’, which has been designed specifically for use with the PS. The Iron Lady, moved by four tugs, then brings the topsides to their final resting place which is the Able Seaton Port in Teeside. The topsides are then ‘skidded’ onto land using some mega hydraulics and then slowly dismantled to be largely recycled. Again, have a watch of of this in action - it’s rather neat.
Transfer process of Charlie topsides from Pioneering Spirit to Iron Lady
Brent Charlie is significant in two ways really. It’s the last Brent platform to be removed from the field, but it’s also the heaviest. The platform weighs around 31,000 tonnes, where the previous platform to be brought onto land, Alpha, weighed only circa 17,000 tonnes. Charlie is the heaviest platform ever to be brought ashore!
Mission
Naturally group chats are buzzing with talk of this mammoth arrival in Hartlepool and plans begin to form. Some are more keen than others as ever, but Slayaaa came through and the day after the Pioneering Spirit had thrown anchor, we were Northeast bound. Upon arrival however, it became clear that we’d perhaps been a tad premature because the platform was still very much not transferred to the Iron Lady, and very much NOT on or anywhere near land.
Our view of the absolute beast that is the Pioneering Spirit
In the hope that they might transfer and skid the following day, we decided to make a weekend of it in Hartlepool and hang around. Slayaaa took me to his favourite curry house in Seaton - cute. The next day rolled around and still, no evidence of movement from the vessels. Upon checking the shipping reports for Teeside it confirmed no skidding would be happening that weekend. Ah well, was fun all the same.
Fast forward a week and after close monitoring of VesselFinder and the shipping reports, we were convinced the platform was on land and prime. Another gruelling journey of many motorways and much traffic ensued and I met with Otter and Soy in a nearby housing estate to prep the gear before heading to the site. Our high spirits were short-lived because, upon closer inspection, it became apparent that the rig was indeed… not on land. It was in fact still on the Iron Lady barge, tethered to the dock, yet to be skidded. Attached to land but not on it. Much cursing was done. There was a huge workforce working through the night to prepare the skidding tracks etc ready to get the thing off the barge, presumably in the coming day or two. I climbed into the site just to check it wasn’t going to be a go while the others waited on the right side of the fence. The depressing reality hit when walking up to the edge of the basin; the platform was lit up so heavily underneath that it would have probably been less obvious boarding it during the day. A few very near misses with workers and a lot of rain later, I headed back out and we retreated to the cars and headed off.
Two days later, the three of us returned to the site to find a much darker looking Charlie that was definitely, 100%, absolutely on the land. Workers gone. Floodlights off. PRIME. Third time is the charm, apparently.
We packed up all the gear we thought we might need to get onboard the bugger and went for it. I won’t go into the logistics, but four or so painstaking hours later we found ourselves firmly on the platform as the sun was very much rising. This would leave only one option - we’d have to make it home for the day. This had always been a loose idea but had access been a thing at the very beginning of the night it might have been sufficient to just spend a few hours on it. Leaving before darkness with the plethora of workers underneath would have been guaranteed suicide and likely have meant creating problems for future recreational trespassers. Dawn to dusk it was to be.
As far as urb3x sleepova locations go, this one was top tier. Enough bottled water to supply the entire town for a few days; dry provisions still in date; fresh bedding and running water (just about). We chose our rooms in the accommodation block, dumped the bags and headed to the helideck for an absolutely cracking sunrise.
After some rather risqué photos atop the helideck, we were absolutely shattered so retreated to the accommodation we’d chosen for a well-earned kip. Managed a solid six hours sleep and to be honest, would stay again.
I woke up just before a wild Otter was knocking at the door to deliver the wakeup call as promised; a very surreal experience it has to be said. We came up with a loose plan of action for the day and split up to various parts of the structure to begin.
I took more photos externally than internally as I’d forgotten my tripod (classic) and cba with loads of light painting. I’m sure someone will be able to share a more extensive coverage of the interior areas of the platform and I’d be keen to see such a thing. I’ll share the few, VERY high ISO photons captured inside first then move outside and upwards. These are a mixture of camera and phone photos so the quality varies rather drastically.
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