Buzzard Contract Set to Take Flight

THE first steel is cut for the Nexen Buzzard oilfield project at Heerema ship yard in Hartlepool where work is underway on building a 5,900 tonne deck and 500 tonne bridge for a platform working off North East Scotland.

The project will swell the number of staff at Heerema’s two dock yards from120 to more than 300. Director Frank Moran said the contract was “one of the biggest” to be built at Hartlepool and work is due to be completed by April 2010.

The three-level deck will be connected to the existing Buzzard complex by the 80 metre bridge.

Once up and running, the “sweetening deck” will provide additional processing facilities and allow corrosive hydrogen sulphides to be removed from future oil streams – helping to open up new reserves.

“The Buzzard field has significant potential,” said Mr Moran.

Heerema previously completed a 9,500-tonne deck for Nexen Buzzard in 2006 and is tendering for a share of the pounds 4bn MoD contract to build two of the largest aircraft carriers in the worldD.

Hartlepool MP Iain Wright and Margaret Fay, who chairs regional development agency One North- East, watched the first steel plate for the project being cut.

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