TV arrives on Statfjord Evacuation chute

New loading system in place

Norwegian Petroleum Museum

Cracks had been discovered in the supporting column on the Statfjord A loading buoy. Rather than making repairs, it was decided to replace the structure with a new solution developed by Ugland Engineering AS at Grimstad in southern Norway.

— UKOLS loading system. Illustration from Mobile Report, 1986

With this Ugland-Kongsberg offshore loading system (Ukols), the loading line was connected to a shuttle tanker via a moored and submerged buoy. It was clearly cheaper as well being time-saving and less risky than the old installation. One advantage was that nothing stuck up above the sea surface. Several collisions have occurred between ships and loading buoys.

A Ukols was also installed for Statfjord B in 1990 to replace that platform’s loading buoy. Statoil designated these identical systems as OLS-A and OLS-B.

To learn more, see: The loading buoys on Statfjord .

Sources:
Norwegian Wire Service (NTB), 20 January 1986. “Lastebøye-kontrakt Statfjord-Ugland/KV”.
Stavanger Aftenblad , 14 December 2007, p 6 . “ Olje lakk i minst en halv time”.
Daling, Unn Kristin and Hans Christian Erlandsen. Offshore Kongsberg . Kongsberg 1999, pp 91-93.
Lindøe, John Ove. From Sea to Shore . Stavanger 2009, p 89.
Nerheim, Gunnar and Kristin Øye Gjerde. Uglandrederiene. Verdensvirksomhet med lokale røtter . Grimstad 1996, pp 287-288 and 401-403.