Ekofisk

A dull picture taken on a dull day. Not much contrast today, everything looks grey. What you see here is the Ekofisk complex in the Norwegian sector. Ekofisk saw a major overhaul in 1987, after operators noticed in 1984 that the air gap underneath their platform became smaller and smaller. It was decided to jack-up the whole complex 6 meters. An enormous job and a remarkable feat. A concrete storage tank could not be jacked up and had to be protected by means of a concrete circular barrier wall, you can see that in the front of the Thialf. I am afraid the grey colour won't do much good to this picture. The reason that I took this picture however is the object hanging in the portside crane of the Thialf. It is a so called riser, a vertical pipeline connecting the transport pipelines at the seafloor to the process facilities on the platform. When removing the platform, all items like these risers will be removed one by one. Final goal is to leave the site as much as it was in 1969, when oil was found here.