DP2 installed on the field TP1 installed on the field

MCP-01 installed

by Harald Tønnesen, Norwegian Petroleum Museum

The 14/9 manifold compression platform (MCP-01) was installed in June 1976, about midway between Frigg and St Fergus in Scotland.

— MCP-01. Photo: Bob Fleumer/Norwegian Petroleum Museum

This facility was part of the pipeline system and functioned as a pump and pressuriser for Norwegian and British gas deliveries. It was also important for pigging (pipeline cleaning) operations. Total Oil Marine was operator for the transport system and for the St Fergus terminal.

MCP-01 stands in 94 metres of water, about 175 kilometres from St Fergus and 186 kilometres from Frigg. The closest platforms are Claymore, which is 45 kilometres to the south, and Piper Bravo 53 kilometres towards the south-east.

This installation was built in Skånska Cementgjuteriet?s dry dock at Kalvik in Strömstad, Sweden. The principal contractor was France’s C G Doris. The concrete gravity base structure comprises a 148-metre cylinder with a diameter of nine metres. Six cells measuring 105 metres in height are ranged around it. Columns are installed on top of these cells to support the topsides, which comprise main and cellar decks.

MCP-01 came on stream in September 1977. It was originally designed as a staffed platform which would receive gas and transmit it on. The platform later also handled supplies destined for St Fergus from other fields. At peak, the platform received and transported on gas from Frigg, North East Frigg, Alwyn North, Odin, Galley, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe, Piper and Tartan. All processing had been completed by the time the gas reached MCP-01, but this platform was important for pigging operations and as a hub providing access to the 32-inch pipelines running to the receiving terminal in St Fergus.

MCP-01 went through a number of modifications, including changes in 1979-80 to receive gas from Tartan and Piper A via an 18-inch pipeline.

Extra equipment was installed in 1983 to handle compression of gas from North-East Frigg and Odin, and to depressurise the line in the event of an emergency. The compression equipment was disconnected in 1990, and the pipelines from Frigg were diverted around the platform in 1991.

MCP-01 was reclassified as unstaffed in 1992. The power generators were shut down, and the platform abandoned. This installation is due to be disassembled and removed in connection with the removal of the Frigg facilities, but part of the concrete gravity base will remain standing.