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Ardyne, a plug, abandonment and casing recovery specialist has been awarded a four-year contract for the provision of fishing services for 86 wells as part of the well plug and abandonment (P&A) programme for two fields in the Northern North Sea.

The work has commenced and is expected to last up to four years across two assets. The job involves Ardyne’s leading TRIDENT and TITAN P&A technologies, with the company having invested approximately UK£2.6mn in brand new industry-first fully traceable (NS-1) fishing and milling tools.

The efficiencies generated by Ardyne’s industry-leading bottom hole assembly technologies could save more than 40 days of rig time across the two platforms, which equates to more than 300 extra downhole trips being avoided.

Alan Fairweather, CEO of Ardyne, commented, “This award is testament to the proven quality and time saving efficiencies of Ardyne's P&A technologies, plus the experienced team and engineering capabilities we have in Aberdeen.

“We are excited to be part of our client’s decommissioning team and look forward to delivering efficiencies during the P&A phase of these platforms. It’s encouraging to see North Sea decommissioning moving forward again, and our investment in a new training scheme will help prepare our workforce for playing a key role in that.”

With a vision to be the go-to well abandonment and decommissioning partner for their clients, Graeme Brand, Business Development Director, explained how JFO has continued to innovate, grow and enhance their business and team globally, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.

In an article for Energy Voice, Brand explained how, in order to achieve their goal, the company has acquired subsea project and engineering consultancy Subsea Engenuity, identified for its drive to create better technologies and solutions for subsea well abandonment. This has allowed JFO to enhance their portfolio of solutions and embrace new experienced members into their team.

This acquisition has allowed the new members to release the SEABASS vessel based subsea abandonment tool. This is a single trip mechanically locking system for the abandonment of category 2 wells and is designed to deliver cost and time efficiencies compared to existing alternatives. The SEABASS tool is designed to remove containments and provide barriers to allow the well site to return to its original environment state.

Incorporating SEABASS into JFO’s full back deck capabilities, whether combining with our abrasive water jet cutting, or our internal cut and lift tool, for example, a single vessel and multi-skilled team delivers cost and time efficiencies, reduces deck and POB space, improves assurance and safety while significantly reducing a projects carbon footprint. This will allow JFO to deliver a single-source solution, reducing contractual complexity and enabling multi-well and multi-operator campaigns, encouraging collaboration along with more efficient and effective use of vessels.

Decommissioning potential

Brand also noted that, with the outcome of the forthcoming COP26 kept in mind, there will be many opportunities for decommissioning across the globe. A report by MarketsAndMarkets suggested that 7500 offshore platforms across 53 countries are ready to be eased into retirement and a separate study by Rystad predicted that the potential global value of US$42bn by 2024.

Moreover, as Brand continued, the North Sea is the most active basin for offshore decommissioning, setting the benchmark for best practice innovation. With the introduction of the new team members, the SEABASS tool and the existing capabilities of the company, JFO should be well positioned to take advantage of the forthcoming wave of decommissioning and hopes to continue to evolve in order to meet the demands and expectations of their clients and the offshore society.

During a challenging time for the industry, Wellvene, a design, engineering and manufacturing company, has continued to progress from strength to strength and has capped its impressive performance with the introduction of its latest well intervention solution: the WellHOP™ - Shallow Application Slickline Solution.

Writing in its latest update bulletin, Bronson Larkins, managing director of Wellvene, outlined how the company, which is entering its fifth year of operations, has continued in its evolution despite the industry downturn. When the pandemic hit, many companies including Wellvene were forced change their business plans and way of operations. Despite this, Wellvene has pushed on and successfully re-adapted its 2020/21 plan in order to protect its growth objectives and support the changing requirements of the well industry.

For instance, the company recognised that with the increasing pressure on operators and providers to deliver more climate friendly services and products, there has been a shift away from new well delivery to lower cost, lower rate adding well intervention opportunities while companies are also more intent on achieving their P&A obligations. By steering into this, and working to reduce its carbon footprint itself, Wellvene has expanded upon its working relationships with major operating and service companies in the UK, Norway, the Middle East and Australasia.

While signalling that further growth is still on the horizon, Bronson commented, “We’ll continue to re-invest in our business and our people, and reaffirm our commitment to industry improvement, whilst staying true to our core values of safety, integrity, trust, transparency and respect.”

The WellHOP™ solution

As if to demonstrate the strong position the company is currently holding, Wellvene has released the WellHOP™ Shallow Application Slickline Solution, designed as a more efficient solution to addressing shallow plug installations for xmas tree, well head repairs and DHSV remedial work. For their WellHop technology, Wellvene has been selected as a finalist in the Emerging Technology category for The Offshore Achievement Awards 2021.

Wellvene recognised that operating companies have a HSE obligation to carry out annual Wellhead maintenance on all xmas tree valves, wellhead valves and DHSV’s and, with a significant number of tests on any given platform, failure of numerous valves may occur. This can result in the requirement for wireline to be mobilised in order to plug the well for surface valve repairs or to complete remedial work on the DHSV. This can become a time consuming and costly problem for operating companies as securing space on any platform post maintenance campaign, is often tricky.

This is where the WellHOP™ comes in. With a wire drum c/w 3,000ft of 0.125” slickline, measuring head and toolstring winch installed directly onto a frame around the lubricator, it challenges traditional slickline rig ups and operating methods by eliminating the need for a mast and separate wireline winch whilst also simplifying the overall PCE rig up.

The WellHOP™ is specifically designed for DHSV remedial work and to set shallow plugs for xmas trees and wellhead repairs or emergent plugging operations. With the ability to be transported in only two baskets for reduced lifts and full PCE rigged up directly onto well with only two lifts, the system offers significant time saving during rig up and rig down. For multi well campaigns the system can also be lifted directly from one well to the next in a single lift and allows a customer to achieve more xmas tree and DHSV repairs within a single campaign compared with conventional slickline. The WellHOP™ ensures a reduction in operational risk, time, cost and POB whilst improving overall operational efficiency.

Due to its numerous benefits, the WellHOP™ solution has been submitted for the OWI Global Awards 2021. To find out more information on this event, follow this link: https://offsnet.com/owi-awards

Spirit Energy has announced that they have begun planning for the decommissioning of the Chestnut oilfield in the Central North Sea.

Thanks to continued investment from operator Spirit Energy and partner Dana Petroleum, additional wells and class leading production efficiency on the Hummingbird Spirit Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel which sits on Chestnut, the field has produced almost quadruple the initial reserve estimates and has survived for more than a decade after it was first expected to be shut in.

Chestnut – which first came on stream in 2008 with an expected two-year production life – is still producing oil via three wells, the last of which was drilled in 2020. The field, nearly 200 km east of Aberdeen, has now produced more than 27 million barrels of oil, having initially been expected to yield only around 7 million barrels.

All good things…

After an impressive and perhaps unexpected lifespan, Spirit Energy and the FPSO owner Teekay have now started the first stages of preparing to decommission the field.

Under the proposed decommissioning plans, the FPSO will be removed and Teekay will assess potential reuse options or ultimately recycle the vessel in an environmentally safe and responsible manner in accordance with applicable UK/EU regulations. The risers will also be flushed, cleaned and taken back to shore.

The start date for the offshore campaign is dependent on final cessation of production from the field.

Mark Fotheringham, Capital Projects Director at Spirit Energy, commented, “Chestnut has been a key field in Spirit Energy’s portfolio for many years and thanks to the excellent work of teams both on and offshore, it has continued to perform above expectation.

“While it continues to produce today, we need to look to our responsibilities in the future and have the right plans in place for when the time does come to start decommissioning the field. As its production life nears an end, we are now looking forward to a safe removal campaign.

“The collaborative spirit which characterised the production phase of Chestnut’s life will continue as we support Teekay in any repurposing opportunities for the vessel, as well as working with our supply chain on an efficient campaign to plug and abandon the wells.”

Aberdeen-based downhole sensing technology specialist, Well-SENSE, has entered into a five-year agreement that provides Halliburton Company exclusive rights to distribute and deploy Well-SENSE’s FiberLine Intervention (FLI) technology in North America’s unconventional wells market.

Understanding and optimising well and fracture interactions is a challenge that operators face today. Branded by Halliburton as ExpressFiber, the disposable fibre-optic surveying solution offers operators in North America’s unconventional market an accurate and direct subsurface measurement during fracture operations, at a price point to suit every well pad. Unlike other cross-well monitoring techniques that provide indirect measurements, ExpressFiber uses distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) to acquire a direct measurement of microseismic, strain and temperature.

Annabel Green, CEO of Well-SENSE, said, “Entering into our first, multi-year, commercial contract with a leading oil and gas service company is an exciting step for Well-SENSE and it will demonstrate the scalability of FLI. Our unique bare fibre deployment technology delivers cost and time savings alongside superior data and has a wide range of downhole applications. We are firmly focused on delivering that value to operators around the world and our agreement with Halliburton represents a key milestone in this strategy.”

Well-SENSE’s wider range of acoustic and thermal fibre solutions have been successfully deployed, both onshore and offshore, around the world for a variety of applications. Currently the technology is in high demand to assist with cement assurance, leak detection, P&A planning, cross-well strain and vertical seismic surveys.

Well-SENSE is part of Aberdeen’s FrontRow Energy Technology Group, which is focused on nurturing new technology to provide practical solutions to current oil and gas challenges.

KDS JV AS, the joint venture between DOF Subsea and Aker Solutions, has been awarded a subsea decommissioning contract for DNO at the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

The contract includes engineering, preparation, removal & disposal work (EPRD) of associated subsea hardware.

The project shall be delivered by an integrated expert team from the JV partners. DOF Subsea shall deploy Skandi Acergy from its fleet, and Aker Solutions will use its disposal site at Stord for recycling.

Engineering will start immediately, with offshore execution planned for the first quarter of 2022, although there is a possibility for an earlier start in the last quarter of 2021.

Included in the project scope is the removal and disposal of subsea infrastructure such as template, manifold, production spools, umbilical, covers and associated hardware.

Netherlands-based Wintershall Noordzee B.V., a joint venture of Wintershall Dea GmbH and Gazprom EP International B.V., has started a largescale decommissioning programme in the Southern North Sea.

The first phase of this programme will last for approximately one and a half years and entails the plugging-and-abandonment (P&A) of 24 wells in both Dutch and German waters, and the removal of two platforms and two subsea installations.

The tender for the first part of this extensive programme was granted to Swift Drilling BV. In the past months, the SWIFT 10 jack-up rig has been modified and prepared to start work after a period of stacking due to a worldwide economic slump in offshore activities. The rig will first set sail to the P9 location to close off and safely abandon two subsea wells. It will then continue to the next wells until all 24 wells have been securely plugged and abandoned.

Decommissioning and complete removal of its assets is part of the full activity cycle of Wintershall Noordzee. A largescale campaign such as this is an efficient and effective way for the company to fulfill its decommissioning liabilities, Windershall Noordzee says.
“It is merely the final act of what we do, and one we have mastered doing over the years”, said Jone Hess, Managing Director of Wintershall Noordzee B.V. “We are proud of our accomplishments in the Southern North Sea and will continue to fulfill our obligations when it comes to our assets.”

Removal of four non-producing assets

Part of the largescale decommissioning programme is the full removal of the Q4-A and B production platforms, in addition to the two P9 subsea installations. These activities are due to start in the spring of 2022, with completion by Q4 2022.

Wintershall Noordzee B.V. is one of the largest producers of natural gas on the Dutch continental shelf. It is operator of 23 production platforms and six subsea installations in the Dutch, English, German, and Danish sectors of the North Sea. Active in the Southern North Sea since 1965, the company has substantial experience in decommissioning and re-use of its installations. Since the late 1980s, 58 wells have successfully been plugged and abandoned, starting with the first five wells in 1988 belonging to production platform K13-D. That same year, the topside of K13-D was moved to its new location in sector L8 becoming production platform L8-H. This marked the company’s first of a total of seven reused topsides to date.

Wintershall Noordzee has fully decommissioned and removed 16 production platforms during the past 30+ years, of which seven topsides were reused at new locations in the Southern North Sea. The topside of production platform P14-A has already been recycled twice by becoming the topside of E18-A in 2008, which became the topside of production platform D12-B in 2019.

Aberdeen-based Well-Safe Solutions, which specialises in the decommissioning of onshore and offshore wells, is gearing up to take advantage of the expected increase in activity in 2021/2022.

In the company’s Group Strategic Report and Directors’ Report for the year ended 31 March 2020, issued in July 2021, CEO Phil Milton commented that the improving COVID-19 situation, improving oil prices and steps taken by the company to reduce capex and opex mean that it will be well positioned to commence decommissioning operations in 2021/2022 as contracts are awarded.

Milton commented that the size of the market has not been affected by the downturn in activity, with the commencement of work being deferred rather than cancelled, although he noted that there remains some uncertainty about the speed and timing of contract awards.

“The business remains focused on fulfilling current agreed work, and is in active discussion with other third parties regarding new and future contracts,” he said.

“The focus for the year ahead is in managing costs while working through the downturn in activity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and oil price crash.

“We continue to plan for the restart of the well decommissioning programme suspended due to the COVID-19 outbreak, where four wells were mechanically suspended and still required to be fully decommissioned.” He added that the offshore decommissioning programme restarted in May 2021.

According to the Directors’ Report, the group had in excess of £12mn (US$16.7mn) in cash reserves at the end of June 2021 to support the final pieces of refurbishment works required on its fleet, converting the rigs to bespoke plugging and abandonment (P&A) units in readiness for an increase in activity.

Well-Safe Solutions was established in 2017 to provide a ground-breaking approach to safe and cost-efficient decommissioning. It continues to develop its innovative P&A Club whereby members provide a pool of wells that enable Well-Safe Solutions to leverage economies of scale to reduce decommissioning costs for all members. The company is engaged in research and development activities with the aim of enhancing industry knowledge and understanding of key technologies and processes which can deliver costs and efficiency improvements to clients’ decommissioning projects.

With the industry’s drilling units (both semi-submersible and jack-ups) in the UKCS in decline through retirement and cold stacking, Well-Safe is bucking the trend by investing heavily in its fleet. The company added a second rig to its fleet of bespoke decommissioning assets in September 2020, the Well-Safe Protector. Following this acquisition, it secured a £26mn (US$36.1mn) investment to fund the next stage in its growth plan and deliver its vision to become a globally recognised Tier 1 well decommissioning company, with the ability to cover both subsea wells and multiple platform projects. Well-Safe Solutions is looking to add further assets to its growing fleet.