Offshore contractor Allseas has deployed its giant Pioneering vessel and its new jacket lifting technology for the first time to remove CNR International’s Ninian Northern jacket from the northern North Sea and transport it intact to shore for recycling.

Weighing in at 8100 tonnes, the first commercial lift with Pioneering Spirit’s Jacket lift system (JLS) is one of the heaviest offshore jacket lifts ever but remains well within the system’s 20,000-tonne single-lift capacity, Allseas explained in a statement on Friday.