BW Offshore's floating production, storage and offloading vessel Umuroa has finally disconnected from the Tui oilfield offshore New Zealand where it has been stranded for more than a year.
The FPSO has been marooned at the field since November 2019 when the field operator and owner - Tamarind Taranaki, a subsidiary of Malaysia's Tamarind Resources - becoming financially insolvent.
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The country's Environmental Protection Authority then prevented BW Offshore from disconnecting the floater and sailing away.
A local court finally ruled in November 2020 against the FPSO being held, and proceedings began for its disconnection.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) said on 6 May 2021 that the last of the nine anchor chains that kept the floater moored was disconnected and the vessel was now able to depart the field and New Zealand waters.
The costs of the disconnection and demobilisation of the FPSO will be covered by the MBIE. The final costs have yet to be determined.
“This is a major milestone for the Tui project,” said an MBIE spokesperson. “Work began in January to flush and disconnect the production lines that were attached to the Umuroa and now the mooring system that has held the vessel in place for the last 14 years has been disconnected."
The production equipment that has been lowered to the seafloor will be retrieved, along with other subsea infrastructure, in the next phases of the decommissioning.
Request for proposals from a shortlist of potential providers for this work are being issued and MBIE said it expects to award these contracts in the coming months.