Decommissioned Brent Alpha Oil Platform Arrives In Teesside

TEESSIDE, ENGLAND - JUNE 24: The Brent Alpha topside oil platform is transported on the Iron Lady cargo barge into the mouth of the River Tees on route to the Able UK Seaton Port for decommissioning on June 24, 2020 in Teesside, England. The 17,000 tonne oil platform was transported to an area off the Hartlepool coast by the largest heavy lift vessel ever built, Pioneering Spirit, from the Shell Brent oil field situated 115 miles north-east of Lerwick in Scotland. After arriving off the coast of Hartlepool the platform was transferred to the barge to be towed into the mouth of the River Tees. This is the third oil platform to be removed from the Shell Brent oil field with the sister platforms, Brent Delta decommissioned at the same site in 2017 and Brent Bravo last year. Once at the Able UK site Brent Alpha will be broken down with some parts being re-sold and the rest scrapped and re-cycled. At its peak in 1982 the four Shell platforms in the Brent field were producing more than half a million barrels of oil a day. Production at the field was stopped in 2011. (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)