Yeah you are right it is Viking Piper or LB200 as it was when i worked on it in the good old days whats your name?, i might know you i worked on her 83/1996.
I did one trip on this platform but resided on a drilling semi submisible, I think it might have been the Hendrik Hibsen, but yes this is the Viking Piper.
We were towed to the Piper Alpha during this trip and anchored on the opposite end to the twin flare booms, a beautiful sight silhouetted at night by the flames which I will always remember, sadly to be taken by them all those years later along with many a hard working lad.
I was a driller on the Hakon Magnus when she first came out of Oslo in 75 and sailed to her first location in the Bassien field on the Bombay High. Yes, the good old days.
The barge is indeed Viking piper at the time it was the largest pipe layer in the world and held the record for laying in pipe in force 8. Call sign Oxy-Viking. I worked on the hook up for Claymore from 1976-78 Claymore was the fastest hook up in North Sea history (36 months) if I remember rightly the flare booms were lit on Christmas day 1977. The semi being used for accomodation was Sedco 704 a US rig. It was the first time that cross anchoring was achieved to allow the barge and rig to be on station at the same time. VK was so big and so stable that it very rarely ever 'pulled off' in bad weather - much to our disgust!
I worked on the Viking Piper in 1975 as a Radiographer for BIX out of the UK. We were flown to Hamburg to board her just before she left for the North Sea on her maiden pipelay.
I remember BIX Inspection in the mid seventies at Ekofisk. I saw BIX everywere so they must have a lot of personel offshore at that time.
Added by Carl Peter Wiig on 07 May 2011.
I worked on the construction of the Claymore A platform. and stayed on the semi submersible Viking Piper in 1974. I will always remember the good food.
Embarque en febrero 1980 Hamburgo y nos remolcaron al Mar del Norte frente a una plataforma fija unida por un puente Tartan A trabajaba el universal services.
"We boarded Hamburg in February 1980 and were towed to the Tartan A in the North Sea, connected by bridge to work on universal services." Google Translate
Added by Anon on 19 May 2008.