MCP-01

The Manifold Compression Platform MCP-01 sits in 94m of water, 173km north-east of Aberdeen. The platform was installed in 1977. It is a concrete gravity structure design weighing over 386,000 tonnes which was built in Sweden by Doris Engineering.

The original purpose of the platform was to act as a compression and interconnection platform for the Frigg Transportation System (FTS) consisting of a 32” Frigg UK pipeline and a 32” Frigg Norwegian pipeline (known today as the Vesterled pipeline) transporting gas from the Frigg reservoir to the St Fergus Gas Terminal in Scotland.

Compression facility was installed in 1982 on MCP-01 for the Frigg Norwegian pipeline operations, but was taken out of service in 1987.

In 1987 gas from the platform Alwyn North started to flow in the Frigg UK pipeline using the platform TP1 at Frigg as an entry point. The fields Tartan, Piper B, Claymore, MacCulloch, Ivanhoe, Rob Roy and Galley fields have used MCP-01 as a riser platform for sending gas to the St Fergus Gas Terminal through the 18” Talisman spurline attached to the platform external wall.

In 1992 MCP-01 has re-configured to allow it to be operated as a “not-normally-manned” platform controlled from the St Fergus Gas Terminal. Security cameras onboard monitor the platform 24 hours a day. To improve safety and reduce maintenance, the operational equipment used on the platform was kept to a minimum. The platform can be shut down by the nearby Tartan platform if required.

Gas from the Heimdal platform in the Norwegian sector started to flow in the Vesterled pipeline in 2001 after connecting the 32” pipeline from Heimdal to the original Frigg Norwegian pipeline.

The pipelines entering/leaving MCP-01 will continue to be in use, and will therefore required to be rerouted to allow MCP-01 to be decommissioned.

The process for decommissioning of the MCP-01 platform is currently being prepared.