ABP Lowestoft’s marine team guided one of its largest ever barges safely out of the port and into the North Sea
Following last week’s successful departure of a power generation module for Maersk Oil’s Culzean offshore energy project, ABP Lowestoft’s marine team has guided one of its largest ever barges safely out of the port and into the North Sea, ABP says in a press release.
Carrying two bridge sections weighing almost 2,000 tonnes in total, the barge was one of the largest vessels of its kind to visit the Port of Lowestoft. At 122m long by 30.5m beam, it was close to the maximum size the port can accommodate but was expertly and comfortably handled by the marine team.
As with the recent power generation module shipment, the bridge sections were constructed by Sembmarine SLP within the port and they are the next important components in Maersk Oil’s Culzean gas condensate development. The Culzean project is the largest gas field in UK waters since East Brae in 1990. Expected online in 2020, the Culzean project has the capacity to meet around 5% of the UK’s national gas demand.
Andrew Harston, ABP Short Sea Ports Director responsible for the Port of Lowestoft, said: "The successful shipments for the Culzean development demonstrate the scale of projects Lowestoft is capable of delivering.
“This has been a first class partnership between the Sembmarine SAP team and our experienced marine team, which demonstrates the technical expertise and the important role ABP Lowestoft plays in serving the growing UK Offshore Energy sector.”
ABP’s Lowestoft team has been working closely with long-term partners Sembmarine SLP, the company that was awarded the contract in 2015 to carry out the construction of new components for the Culzean project.
