Leiths

Hard on the heals of the departure of the Intrepid drilling rig, the Northern Producer has come into the dry dock for dismantling after having been anchored in Loch Kishorn for 18 months. The Producer is a 12,500 tonne floating production facility which has reached the end of its operational life. It commenced operations as a drilling rig in 1976 and was most recently located in the Dons Field in the Northern North Sea before being towed to Kishorn.

The rig’s owners chose Kishorn for dismantling as it’s one of only a handful of facilities which are fully licenced by the EU and SEPA to accept such structures for dismantling in a dry dock. The dismantling work itself will be undertaken by Liberty Industrial who have significant experience of demolition and decommissioning of major power station, oil refinery and infrastructure facilities. Liberty are currently decontaminating and demolishing the former Nigg oil terminal near Invergordon.

The dismantling operation will take between eight to ten months, with the steel to be shipped out by cargo vessel for recycling elsewhere.