A North Sea vessel owned by energy giant Shell will spend three months in the Port of Dundee later this year as part of its decommissioning process.
Augean North Sea Services (ANSS) will provide specialised cleaning and waste management services for Shell’s floating production, storage and offloading vessel for its Curlew field, 130 miles south-east of Aberdeen.
After cleaning and decontamination, the 236 metre vessel will be taken to Turkey for final dismantling and recycling.
ANSS was founded as an environmental services company in 2012 for the provision of complete waste management services to the oil and gas industry.
In 2017 the company began the development of a multi-million-pound decommissioning centre in Dundee.
Managing director Simon Gibb said he expected the Curlew contract to be the first of many major projects to come to Dundee.
He said: “This contract win, coupled with our continual growth through diversification, demonstrates that ANSS is now considered to be among the leading providers of waste management and specialised industrial cleaning in the industry.
“At the same time, our site in Dundee is now a recognised location for decommissioning North Sea infrastructure and we expect the Curlew work to be the first in a long line of projects to come to Dundee.
“With our commitment to best in class customer service, we are very much looking forward to working with Shell on this project.”
The vessel was originally built at the Odense Steel Shipyard in Denmark as the tanker Maersk Dorset in 1983.
In 1997, it was converted at A&P Tyne on the River Tyne and deployed in the Curlew field later that year.
Shell, who bought the FPSO in 2013, said they hoped to recycle 97% of the vessel.
Port of Dundee manager David Webster said: “This decommissioning related contract from Shell will bring an exciting large scale project to the Port of Dundee.
“As with all of the other major Dundee projects to date we continue to prove that the Port of Dundee’s marine and infrastructure capabilities are suitable for large scale oil and gas activities.
“Our supply chain partners such as Augean North Sea Services have been very successful by choosing to be based within the port and working closely with Forth Ports to deliver and execute these contracts.”
rmclaren@thecourier.co.uk