Europe

Odfjell Well Services and Odfjell Energy have announced the launch of a plug and abandonment (P&A) and slot recovery alliance alongside companies within the energy industry.

The agreement has an initial duration of two years with an option to be extended. It has been titled, the ‘Odfjell Collaboration Alliance’.

The aim of this alliance is to provide a complete service offering of rig, modular rig, jacking unit, wireline, plugs and all other services needed to successfully execute projects within P&A or slot recovery operations. The focus will be initially in the Norwegian market, with ambitions to expand beyond the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

Kurt Meinert Fjell, senior vice-president of innovation and development, Odfjell Energy, commented, “We are delighted to announce the launch of this strategic alliance, a move which will provide a high-quality oil service solution within the energy market.

“Each member was chosen for their strong history, forward-thinking approach and commitment to quality, and brings their unique area of expertise to support the P&A or slot recovery activities. We are confident that the multi-operator approach will lead to cost-effective solutions that will benefit our clients.”

The Odfjell Collaboration Alliance is managed by Odfjell Energy and Odfjell Well Services. The members include TCO Group, Ardyne, Wellstrøm, Altus Intervention, Control Cutter, JWS Gruppen, Tyrfing Innovation, InterWell and Innovar Solutions.

Expro Group, an international energy services company with market leadership in well access and well flow optimisation, has completed its previously announced merger with Frank’s International N.V., a global oil services company offering a broad range of highly engineered drilling and completions solutions and services.

Mike Jardon, Chief Executive Officer of Expro, commented, “This is an exciting day for Expro and Frank’s as we bring our companies together to create a new global leader with the breadth of capabilities and expertise across the well lifecycle to better support customers. I would like to thank everyone at Expro and Frank’s for their great work in completing the transaction, planning for a successful integration, and positioning the combined company for long-term success.

“This is where the talented teams come together and we look forward to continuing to deliver cost-effective, innovative technologies and solutions, and best-in-class safety and service quality performance to our customers, all while advancing our commitment to creating a more sustainable business and lower carbon future.”

The merger will build on Expro’s strong position within the oil and gas market with accolades including:
• A leading position in large addressable markets, balanced business mix and global operating footprint;
• The ability to deliver cost-effective, innovative solutions to an expanded customer base
• Material exposure to an expected increase in production enhancement activity and an opportunity to capture significant cost and revenue synergies.
• Robust technology portfolio and innovation pipeline to capitalise on the digital transformation, facilitate the energy transition, and deliver on the promise of a lower carbon future.
• A strong financial profile, which reduces risk and increases strategic flexibility.
• Dedication to governance best practices.

"With our broad portfolio of services and solutions, enhanced scale, global operating footprint and strong, debt-free balance sheet, Expro is well positioned for an expected industry recovery and is well positioned to deliver compelling value for shareholders,” Jardon added.

The combined company has assumed the Expro Group Holdings N.V. name.

In order to accelerate the pace at which well P&A technology is qualified and commercialised, the Net Zero Technology Centre has launched an industry collaboration initiative with the ultimate goal of improving industry performance.

Supported by the Technology Leadership Board (TLB) and Oil and Gas UK (OGUK), the approach will enable new technologies to be trialled and tested in multi-operator collaboration field trials, enabling faster, lower-cost and wider industry adoption.

The Oil and Gas Authority has identified that well P&A represents circa 45% of UKCS decommissioning costs, or an estimated UK£23bn spend over the life of a basin, but technology best practice and innovation could help operators reduce this cost and deliver CO2-compatible well P&A techniques.

Over the next two years the well P&A collaboration initiative has committed to increasing the number of technology field trials, in low access cost land wells. This will support the validation and qualification of alternative P&A barrier materials, inspection and verification technologies and other P&A enabling technology streams to expand the reach of the rigless well P&A approach.

Keith Hogg, Project Manager – Emissions Reduction, The Net Zero Technology Centre commented, “This collaboration could be a true game changer in the way we approach technology development in the wells P&A space. It has the potential to accelerate the progress of technologies being field trailed and tested making them available to operators far more quickly.

“The success of this new collaborative approach has been driven by the commitment of the operators; Spirit Energy and Harbour Energy who participated in the first project together. It is this proactive attitude and willingness to collaborate and share information that we need other UK operators to replicate, as this is key to the future of this collaboration and meeting our industry commitment to a minimum of 35% cost reduction and 50% emissions reduction in well P&A by 2035.”

The wells P&A collaboration initiative will be managed by the Net Zero Technology Centre and overseen by a multi-operator steering group, with backing from Spirit Energy, Repsol and Harbour Energy already secured. The steering group will review up to five technologies per year, conducting a minimum of three field trials for each. The ambition for the initiative is to have six technologies qualified and adopted by 2025.

Carlo Procaccini, OGA Head of Technology and Co-Chair of the TLB, said, “Reducing well P&A cost has long been identified by the TLB and the OGA as a very important priority for our industry. Novel technologies have the power to achieve that. The TLB has been proudly supporting the efforts by the Net Zero Technology Centre, Spirit Energy, Harbour Energy and other partners to bring an ambitious field trial programme to life. Now is the right time to expand this programme to more operators and technologies to accelerate testing and adoption of a fuller portfolio of critical technologies for P&A efficiencies.”

Mike Richardson, Industry Technology Sponsor, Spirit Energy added, “Our industry has struggled to be truly collaborative in the past but this is a fantastic opportunity for operators to work together, reduce costs, accelerate new technology have a better range of plugging solutions available…. all at the same time!”

MatthewsDaniel, a global leader in specialist services for the marine and energy industries and applicable insurers, will open a new office in Aberdeen to enhance its offering to North Sea clients.

David Cox, MatthewsDaniel CEO, commented, “We see this move as one that will enable us to not only better serve our valuable North Sea clients, but also grow the organisation in an important market.

“Aberdeen and the North Sea have a rich oil and gas history, and we are excited to play a part in the next chapter of that story as organisations look towards field and asset decommissioning, as well as renewable energy.”

Cox continued, “The focus of this new office will be on the execution of our North Sea and European marine warranty surveying (MWS) and risk assessment operations, with the region possessing the expertise required to deliver rapid solutions to our clients in this key offshore energy hub.

“These are exciting times for the North Sea, and opening this office is an investment in the industry and the skills that the workforce here have. I have no doubt our new office in Aberdeen will enhance our already strong relationships with our existing clients, as well as future ones.”

Staff will work alongside colleagues from Bureau Veritas and Bureau Veritas Solutions Marine and Offshore, giving them access to a greater depth of resources, including engineering and maritime assurance expertise.

MatthewsDaniel’s experts are world-renowned in conducting specialist technical reviews both onshore and offshore for critical project phases and activities, employing a well-researched and quality-assured approach to identify and advise on measures to mitigate and minimise risk.

isol8, an Aberdeen based oil and gas services firm, has received a UK£3.5mn investment from BGF to support its long-term growth plans and develop its zero-emissions product portfolio as its expands its services into the wellbore construction sector.

It is estimated that successful deployment of isol8’s technology could unlock savings of between UK£1.5mn to UK£7mn for platform and subsea wells abandonments. This could translate to savings of between UK£2bn to UK£5bn in North Sea well decommissioning costs.

isol8 is the only company in the world known to use underwater soldering to create metallurgically bonded alloy barriers to seal off oil and gas wells. The firm designs, develops and deploys its industry leading Fusion Barriers, providing a longer lasting and more environmentally friendly solution to traditional cement-based methods.

The drive to decommission

Andrew Loudon, CEO of isol8, commented, “Decommissioning is now a huge focus in the North Sea and we’re partnering with clients to help them significantly reduce their asset retirement costs.
“Now, with the support of BGF, we are in a strong position to broaden our zero-emission product portfolio and accelerate the production of new products, including our casing annulus packers and tubing packers for well construction.

“The BGF team fully understands and supports our vision, and their expertise and business knowledge will be invaluable as we embark on this next chapter together.”

As part of the transaction, BGF Investor Richard Pugh will join the board of isol8 as an investor director, alongside newly appointed independent director Nigel Avern. Nigel is the former CEO of Peak Well Systems, nurturing the business from a small start-up to an international company with market leading positions in well intervention tooling and bridge plugs. Nigel led the successful trade sale of Peak to Schlumberger. Formerly, Nigel spent 18 years with The Expro Group working in range of marketing, technical and general management roles.

Pugh said, “isol8 has huge potential to use its cutting-edge Fusion technology to generate very large savings in plug and abandonment and intervention operations – both of which are markets where we expect long-term growth and where Aberdeen continues to have world-leading expertise.

“At the same time, by ensuring a gas-tight seal, Fusion provides the industry with a much lower emission solution than cement, going some way to address the long-term challenge of de-carbonising the sector. This funding round will support an exceptional management team in completing the final push to commercial adoption, working in parallel with a number of operators who have shown real commitment to the technology.”

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