OREANDA-NEWS. November 27, 2008. The Murmansk Shipping Company is towing the hull of the Hutton TLP from Murmansk to the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, the topsides of the formerly British platform is to be applied by Gazprom in the Prirazlomnoe project in the Barents Sea.

The towing operation from Murmansk to Mexico is conducted by the Murmansk Shipping Company for the Gazprom subsidiary Sevmorneftegaz, the license holder in the Shtokman and Prirazlomnoe projects.

The Hutton TLP was bought by Sevmorneftegaz in 2002 and sent from the British part of the North Sea to Murmansk. The topsides of the semisubmersible platform is to be applied in the Prirazlomnoe project, the first ever Russian offshore Arctic oil field to be put in production.

The hull has now been sold to a project in the Gulf of Mexico. It will be used as component in a new platform, MBnews.ru reports. The towing operation is conducted in cooperation with the Global Maritime Scotland Ltd. It is the Murmansk Shipping Company’s icebreaker “Vladimir Ignatyuk” which is being applied in the operation.

The Hutton TLP was the first ever production Tension Leg Platform (TLP) – a floating production platform permanently moored to the sea floor via tethers or tendons at each of the structures corners. Hutton TLP was originally installed in 1984 by Conoco, but at the time of decommissioning it had been bought by Kerr-McGee, Oil and Gaz UK informs.

Gazprom’s “Prirazlomnaya” platform is currently under construction at the Sevmash yard in Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk Oblast. Production start in the project has been postponed several times. It is now believed that production startup will take place no earlier than 2011.