The Dutch Dockwise Vanguard is a semi-submersible heavy lift ship built in 2012 by Hyundai Heavy Industries that can carry 110,000 tons. That makes it the largest marine transport vessel in the world. Oil company Eni Norge gave them a call.
Eni's Goliat platform designed by the Norwegian company Sevan Marine in Arendal and built at the HHI yard in South Korea is the largest cylindrical floating oil drill ever made.
It's 351 feet in diameter at process deck level, can produce 100,000 barrels of oil per day and store one million barrels, has facilities for a staff of 120 and enough lifeboats to seat 240. It comes with 14 anchor lines and 22 wells, including 11 producers, nine water injectors and two gas injectors.
Eni had this to say the world's northernmost offshore oil field operation:
The Eni-operated Goliat field is the world's northernmost offshore oil field, and the first oil field to come into production in the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea.
The platform has been specially designed for the Arctic conditions of the Barents Sea and a number of ground-breaking innovations have been incorporated into its design to ensure safe and stable operations.
On 2 February 2015, following the successful completion of a series of planned tests and trials, the FPSO was towed on board the Dockwise Vanguard which will now transport it on its long journey around the southern tip of Africa. Following some final preparations, it is expected to depart on its roughly 60-day journey in a couple of week's time, and should arrive in Hammerfest by the middle of April. The platform will make a brief stop-over before being towed out to the Goliat field location. Tie-in operations and preparations for production will take place during the summer.
The platform will be supplied with electrical power from the mainland using the longest submarine cable of its type in the world. The field is planned to come on stream in the middle of this year.
That is why Norway is the richest country in Europe. No, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Monaco doesn't count.
Photo credit: Eni Norge. Hat tip to 444!