Major oil production vessels heads to Tyne

A large floating storage production and offloading vessel is making its way to the River Tyne and is expected to land this Friday October 18.

The FPSO EnQuest Producer will arrive undertow and without engines making it a challenging job for the Port of Tyne’s team of Pilots.

Mike Nicholson, Port of Tyne’s harbour master, said: “We have developed a good level of experience in handling FPSO’s but working with a ‘dead ship’ with no power always requires careful planning.

“Conditions have to be just right, the weather will be critical, we will need winds of force 4 or less with benign sea and swell. Three of our most senior Pilots will be employed to coordinate five tugs with a total pulling force of over 400 tonnes.”

The ship is 249m and 53k gross tonnes, and once fully converted will be destined for the North Sea oil fields off the coast of Aberdeen.

The EnQuest Producer is expected to arrive off the Tyne at 11am on Friday morning, and weather permitting, is anticipated to be approaching the berth at Offshore Group Newcastle in Wallsend by 3pm.