MSF Jacket and Piles
In 1977, Petrobras, Brazil’s national oil company, awarded the Ardersier Yard a contract to build the Wellhead Jacket, Piles, and Cellar Deck for the Namorado platform. The jacket design significantly differed from that of a North Sea platform, featuring a deep-water structure 174 meters long and weighing only 5,000 tons. The Jacket was the first structure to be assembled on a newly built secondary (west) slipway which was required due to a schedule overlap with the construction of the Murchison Jacket being assembled on the main slipway.
Following completion and loadout, Jacket delivery on the transportation barge, Intermac 600, began in early January 1979. However, while in heavy weather off Teesside on the east coast, the barge was separated from the towing tugs, and the jacket was subsequently lost in 60 meters water depth, where it lies to this day.