Offshore – Historical video about ‘Ekofisk - The Great Hydraulic Jack-up’

A historical video about an impressive Hydraudyne project. ‘Ekofisk – the great hydraulic jack-up’. Ekofisk oil field, August 1987. Six and a half meters to save the Ekofisk. A report from the North Sea makes waves in Europe: There is a risk that the interconnected platforms of the Norwegian Ekofisk oil and gas field could disappear under the sea. After being in operation for more than a decade, the Ekofisk oil field and its platforms have already sunk by four meters since the start of 1986. The hour of need quickly became the hour of the engineer. An international team including offshore specialists from Van Halteren Technologies (formerly Hydraudyne) came up with a bold idea. They attach a total of 122 hydraulic cylinders to the legs of the islands. Technicians then cut through the steel legs, and the hydraulic cylinders lift the islands with a combined weight of 40,000 metric tons by 6.5 meters. Four days later, on August 17, 1987, the hydraulics lower the final platform onto new stilts, that have been lengthened by six meters. More information: www.vanhalteren.com