TAQA UK has awarded offshore contractor Allseas a major contract to decommission the Brae Alpha platform topsides in the Central North Sea, marking another milestone in one of the UK’s largest offshore decommissioning programs.
The engineering, preparation, removal and disposal (EPRD) contract will see Allseas deploy its Pioneering Spirit heavy-lift vessel — the largest in the world — to remove the 33,000-tonne topside and 12,000-tonne upper jacket in two separate campaigns starting later this year.
“Brae Alpha has been central to the UK’s energy security for more than four decades, and this award reinforces TAQA’s leadership in safe, efficient late-life asset management and decommissioning,” said Sandy Hutchison, Managing Director of TAQA UK.
The contract builds on Allseas’ existing work with TAQA in the Northern North Sea, where the contractor is already executing the EPRD program for the North Cormorant, Tern, Eider and Cormorant Alpha platforms — the largest single offshore decommissioning contract ever awarded in the UK.
Allseas President Pieter Heerema noted that the single-lift removal of Brae Alpha represents a significant engineering milestone: “We are proud to continue working with TAQA on this next phase of their decommissioning journey.”
TAQA has pledged that at least 95% of recovered topsides material will be reused or recycled. Located 170 miles northeast of Aberdeen, Brae Alpha began production in 1983 and has produced more than 636 million barrels of oil equivalent during its operational life. The project comes as TAQA transitions multiple assets into post-production, having ceased output at East Brae in 2025 and four Northern North Sea platforms in 2024.
