PortandTerminal.com, September 19, 2019

Located about 50 miles off the west coast of Norway, the Troll-A is a colossal natural gas platform and the tallest structure ever moved by mankind. Its construction is considered as one of the largest and most complex engineering projects in history.

OSLO, NORWAY – The Troll-A platform is an offshore natural gas platform in the Troll gas field off Norway’s west coast. Once it was built in 1996, it was the world’s largest offshore gas platform and the largest object ever moved in human history.

*The Troll-A platform is located on the western coast of Norway*

In 2000 the Petronius Platform in the Gulf of Mexico eclipsed the Troll-A’s record as the world’s largest gas platform. Nevertheless, the Troll-A platform still holds the record for the largest object in the world ever moved in human history. It’s construction, movement and operation remain a marvel of modern engineering.

How big is it?

*The Troll-A tower still retains its record as the largest moveable object in human history*

The Troll-A platform is 786 feet (472 metres) tall. That makes it taller than the Eiffel tower which measures 540 feet (324 metres) tip-to-tip. It weighs 683,600 tons (1.2 million tons with ballast) which is the equivalent weight of 7 Nimitz Class aircraft carriers, the largest warships in the world. At the time it was built almost 25 years ago it cost $US 650 million.

*The Troll A platform weighs as much as 7 Nimitz class aircraft carriers*

It seems like new records in engineering are set and then broken almost daily these days. Once you fully understand though the incredible size of the Troll-A platform and then realize that it was MOVED 120 miles at sea you can begin to fully appreciate what a stunning feat of engineering it is.

Here’s another jaw-dropping visual that shows the incredible size of the platform.

*View inside one of the Troll-A platform’s massive concrete support pillars. The walls of Troll A’s legs are over 1 metre thick, made of steel-reinforced concrete formed in one continuous pour*

Moving the Troll-A Platform

*The Troll A platform was towed over 120 miles (200 km) out to its position off of the west of Norway*

The Troll-A platform still holds the record as the “Largest Object Ever Moved by Mankind” in the Guinness Book of Records. The platform was a televised sensation when it was towed into the North Sea in 1996, where it is now operated by Statoil.

The Troll platform was towed over 200 kilometres (120 mi) from Vats, in the northern part of Rogaland in Norway, to the Troll field, 80 kilometres (50 mi) north-west of Bergen. The tow took seven days to complete.