Ferry quay fate for Brent Spar
15 Jan 2000
It's been an oil storage buoy; it's been a cause celebre for industry and environmentalists; and it's going to end its days as part of a Norwegian ferry terminal. The final plans for the Brent Spar structure, unveiled by Shell in late January, bring this saga to an end, but the debate over disposal of oil rigs is set to continue.
The Spar, currently floating in a Norwegian fjord, will be raised vertically and sliced into five chunks, which will be taken by barge to Mekjarvik near Stavanger. The slices will be positioned in the water adjacent to an existing quay, and a concrete 'lid' placed on top. This option, from Anglo-Norwegian consortium Wood-GMC, will cost some £25 million, compared with some £18.5 million for sea dumping.
Shell stressed that this plan is 'a one-off solution to a one-off structure', and the techniques could not be used to scrap any other installation. Sea dumping remains the best option for certain rigs, said decommissioning manager Eric Faulds. This view is certain to be opposed by Greenpeace, which has called for a ban on sea dumping.
