Heerema Marine Contractors successfully performed the hooking down and removal of the decommissioned PSE Kinsale Energy Bravo platform, in the Kinsale Area gas fields. Following the safe removal of the topside facilities, Heerema is now working on removal of the jacket structure.

The Bravo platform topside was placed on barge H-541, measuring 165.0 metres in length, 42 metres in width, and 10,7 metres in depth. Its deadweight is 41,947 tonnes. Once the jacket top section is removed, the Heerema anchor handling tug boat Kolga, which has a bollard pull of 212 tonnes, will bring these structures for reuse and recycling, by Hoondert Services & Decommissioning (HSD), in Nieuwdorp, Zeeland.

These gas fields in the Celtic Sea, approximately 40km to 70km off the south coast of County Cork in Ireland, include Kinsale Head, Ballycotton, South-West Kinsale and Seven Heads gas fields. They were developed between 1978 and 2003, with the Alpha and Bravo steel platforms, installed as part of the initial development in 1978. Kinsale Energy has been a subsidiary of the Malaysian oil and gas company, PETRONAS, since April 2009.

Decommissioning of these platforms is taking place as anticipated. Indeed, Kinsale last extracted a commercial quantity of gas in July of 2020, after which production was ceased. Environmental studies performed in the area have concluded that it is least disruptive to the ecosystem to leave the subsea pipe-lines in place with a protective rock cover. The gas wells on the other hand, will later be permanently sealed with cement.