Decommissioning
A very delicate time.
For this complex but successful wreck removal project, a JV was formed with Svitzer Salvage to decommission the West Atlas drill rig which had been victim of the Montara platform well blow out in 2009 in the Timor Sea, off shore Western Australia.
The Montara Wellhead Platform (WHP) was located in the Australian sector of the Timor Sea, approximately 250 km northwest of Truscott, Western Australia, in a water depth of circa 77m. Its blow up is considered one of Australia’s worst oil disasters. The slick was released from the 21 August 2009 and continued leaking until 3 November 2009, when it was stopped by pumping mud into the well and the wellbore cemented thus “capping” the blowout. On 21st August 2009 the West Atlas jack-up drilling rig – one of the largest in the world – was adjacent to the Montara at the time of the blowout, and on 1st November 2009 during an attempt to stop the blowout the platform and the rig caught fire.
