Statoil:
Odin to aid Prestige clean-up
Posted: 14 April 2004
The Statoil-owned multipurpose shuttle tanker MST Odin will participate
in efforts to recover oil from the Prestige, the tanker which sank
off Spain in the autumn of 2002.
The authorities in Spain have commissioned Spanish oil company
Repsol YPF to empty the Prestige.
This work has been contracted out to Saipem's Sonsub subsidiary,
which has chartered Odin to hold the recovered oil.
MST Odin is to assist in emptying the cargo tanks on Prestige off
Spain.
The job of emptying the wreck, which lies in 3 850 metres of water,
is due to begin in May and to be completed during the summer.
Statoil is pleased to help avert even greater damage to the environment
along the Spanish coast, reports Jostein Ravndal, vice president
for Statoil's industrial development unit.
Odin will be taking part in a complex operation headed by Repsol,
which involves sinking large containers from the ship down to the
wreck and filling them with oil.
These containers will then be raised to a depth immediately below
Odin and connected to pumps and hoses for transferring the oil to
the latter vessel.
Large containers will be lowered from Odin to the wreck and filled
with oil.
Running initially for two months, the charter contains options
for a further two. One month is also allowed each side of the job
for mobilisation and demobilisation.
Statoil has already contributed to the Prestige clean-up by lending
specialised equipment and providing advice on how the oil should
be recovered.
"We're very gratified to have secured this job for Odin,"
says Mr Ravndal. "We believe this vessel is very suitable for
the work to be carried out.
"In addition to providing our ship, we've also been a good
partner in discussions on how to carry out the work and to handle
the fuel from Prestige on Odin."
Odin is now being readied in Stavanger before it begins the Spanish
assignment.
For more information see www.statoil.com
Posted by Richard Price,
Editor Pipeline Magazine
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