Refloating the Maureen platform

The now decommissioned Maureen oil field in the UK sector of the North Sea was home to the world's largest steel gravity platform. The giant 110 000 t steel structure delivered over 200 million barrels in two decades but was finally removed and towed ashore last summer. This paper describes the technical challenges of hydraulically jacking the massive triple-tank platform out of the seabed and controlling its rise to the surface, 95 m above.