Europe

Archer has announced the award of a five-year contract for the provision of coiled tubing and pumping services with Perenco UK Limited in the United Kingdom.

The contract, with an estimated value of up to US$50mn, contains two options of one year each and commenced 3 May 2023 in direct continuation of company's previous contract with Perenco.
Dag Skindlo, CEO of Archer, commented, “We are extremely proud to announce this long-term coiled tubing and pumping contract. This commitment reflects our client’s confidence in our ability to maintain safe operations and continue our strong service delivery performance.

“Archer announced the acquisition of the Baker Hughes UK Coiled Tubing business early in 2023 and assumed operations from 4 April. We have successfully transitioned the business and have a dedicated Archer Coiled Tubing team of 50 experienced and skilled employees performing safe and efficient services in the UK.

“We look forward to continuing growing the Archer service offering in the UK and bringing value to our clients’ P&A, workover, and intervention programmes.”

Odfjell Technology, an integrated supplier of offshore drilling and well operations, and well service equipment including project and engineering services, has deployed its innovative rigless plug and abandonment (P&A) unit for a geothermal pilot project in Tromsø, Norway.

The downhole conditions for further testing and development of a underground heat storage concept were successfully established by using equipment and operational principles from the offshore oil and gas industry.

 In co-operation with Xrig and Halliburton, Odfjell Technology played a key role in the planning and execution of this project for Kvitebjørn Varme, the company operating the district heating facility in the city of Tromsø. The overall aim for the project was to progress an underground heat storage concept developed by Ruden AS, which won the innovation prize at ONS in 2022.

Creating a network of subsurface fractures between a centre injector well, along with surrounding production wells placed in a circle around the injector, was the purpose of the project. All wells had been pre-drilled down to 300 m depth and Odfjell Technology’s P&A unit was used to deploy a hydraulic stimulation assembly, sand jetting and fracturing the formation every 5-7 m from 270 to 70 m depth.

Following the establishment of fractures, significant flow communication was confirmed between the injector well and the various producers by performing an injection test, meaning ideal downhole conditions were achieved for further testing the Ruden AS heat storage concept.

With this fracture system in place, Kvitebjørn Varme can now use the excessive heat produced from its plant during summer to warm up water, continuously circulating hot water down the injector well, into the fracture network and up through the producer wells. Heat is then transferred from the hot water to the formation, heating up the rock over time. During winter, cold water will be circulated into the same heated fracture system, transferring the stored heat to the cold water. Hot water is then produced from the production wells, ready to be distributed directly into the district heating network.

Elisabeth Haram, Executive Vice President Well Services at Odfjell Technology, commented, “Odfjell Technology uses its heritage of 50 years in the oil and gas industry to play a leading role in the energy transition. This very exciting and strategically important pilot geothermal project clearly shows how our technology and experience can be applied across the energy mix, and what collaboration and competence sharing between the oil and gas industry leaders and new industry partners in the energy sector can achieve.

“Our full rigless P&A unit offering for offshore SR and P&A operations will launch in the next four to six months. We look forward to working with customers and partners to implement this at scale across the world.”

Expro has secured a new contract with Harbour Energy for a well abandonment campaign as part of the decommissioning project for the Balmoral area, in the UK Continental Shelf.

The contract, valued at more than US$20mn, will utilise Expro’s Subsea Well Access technology with a combination of open-water and in-riser applications deployed from a semi-submersible rig.

Expro’s ability to supply a lightweight open-water system will help to mitigate loading issues during the subsea well access intervention part of the overall abandonment campaign. The company’s open-water and in-riser bore selector technology, which eliminates the use of a dual bore riser for the entire abandonment campaign, is designed to deliver significantly reduced system deployment and retrieval times with lower maintenance costs.

To overcome key technical requirements from the customer, Expro devised an innovative technological solution based on a new build lightweight intervention system, incorporating its unique subsea ball valve technologies. Expro’s existing API 17G standard high debris ball valve was recently qualified to provide a single ball cut and seal on coil tubing. This ball valve technology will be re-packaged into bespoke open water riser housings to provide the lightweight solution required.

The solution developed for this award expands Expro’s subsea well access portfolio and allows Expro to now supply the client with all the subsea well access tooling required for the abandonment campaign on the Balmoral area, for horizontal and vertical Xmas Trees.

Colin Mackenzie, Expro’s Vice President of Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa, commented, “We are proud to have secured this award by offering an innovative approach to meet the needs of this important customer. We believe that our leading-edge technology continues to deliver safe, reliable and environmentally secure subsea well access in support of major projects around the world. We are delighted to further extend the scope of our partnership on this campaign which reinforces our position as a key enabler within the plug and abandonment market.”

TechnipFMC has been awarded a significant contract by Equinor to provide riserless light well intervention (RLWI) services on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

The two-year contract (valued between US$75 and US$250mn as per TechnipFMC’s definition of significant) runs from 2024 to 2025, with options to extend for each of the three subsequent years. TechnipFMC will provide production enhancement, production data, and pre-plug-and-abandonment services to Equinor using the RLWI method.

RLWI enables well interventions from a monohull vessel, eliminating the need for a riser and the rig required to connect the riser to the subsea well. Instead, remotely operated Well Control Systems are used to facilitate operations on the seabed. This reduces cost and complexity, increases efficiency, and accelerates the timeframe for increased production.

Jonathan Landes, President, Subsea at TechnipFMC, commented, “TechnipFMC has been providing RLWI services to Equinor since 2006. Over that period, the average duration of an intervention has been reduced by nearly two-thirds thanks to improvements in process and technology, aided by the collaborative relationship with Equinor’s dedicated RLWI team. It is a pleasure to continue developing that relationship as we help our client meet demand for energy.”

Elemental Energies has added to its extensive portfolio through the acquisition of Norwell Engineering (North Sea Well Engineering).

This is the second acquisition for Elemental Energies in just five months after it acquired Vysus Senergy Wells, a subsidiary of Vysus Group in December 2022. These are part of a series of strategic acquisitions to cement its position as the leading wells-focused energy consultancy.

The latest deal will increase the company’s total workforce from 75 to 105. Current clients will continue to be supported by the same long-term engineering specialists.

Elemental Energies’ Chairman, Martyn Fear, commented, “Norwell Engineering is a fantastic addition to our business. Their unrivalled experience in delivering major wells projects around the world further strengthens our capability and expands the opportunities to partner with operators, EPCs and other service companies. Their team has delivered more wells than any other independent consultancy, and decommissioned more wells than any of their peers. This impressive track record and reputation for excellence combined with our own extensive in-house capabilities now gives us a competitive edge on a global scale.”

Iain Adams, Managing Director of Norwell Engineering, added, "I’m extremely proud of our team at Norwell Engineering. Over the last three decades we have delivered many industry firsts and been behind multiple flagship projects from drilling wells in world record water depths to delivering more than 500 project managed wells globally since 1989. As we look to the future and how our world-leading expertise can support the transition of the energy sector through decommissioning and to low carbon, joining Elemental Energies is a natural fit and we look forward to integrating our teams to provide best-in-class, independent engineering and project management across oil & gas, decommissioning, CCUS and geothermal projects.”

Elemental Energies is currently working on a number of energy projects including a landmark carbon capture and storage project for the INEOS-led Greensand project, a number of major decommissioning campaigns in both the UK and Middle East, and multiple deepwater field development projects.

Established in 1989, Norwell Engineering has become the go-to wells specialist for large-scale and challenging projects. It has built a reputation supporting governments, regulators and the largest IOCs in delivering expert, independent advice. It has also built a leading reputation in decommissioning, completing its first dedicated well decommissioning project in 1996 and currently acting as project managers for both wells and facilities decommissioning on the UAQ field decommissioning campaign, offshore UAE.

Michael Dafforn, Director of Elemental Energies, remarked, “Elemental is committed to engineering the energy transition, and the expert team from Norwell Engineering will form an integral part of our ambition to build the leading independent consultancy for wells projects, across upstream, decommissioning and low carbon around the world.

“The Norwell team has earned an enviable reputation for successfully managing the largest and most challenging wells projects for clients around the world over the past 34 years, and we are delighted to welcome their wealth of expertise, team and clients to the company.”

Saipem has been crowned the winner of the 2023 Spotlight on New Technology Award by Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) for its FlatFish Autonomous Underwater Inspection Drone.

The award is assigned by OTC for those who revolutionise the future of offshore energy through technological advancement and innovation. For this year’s Spotlight on New Technology award, Saipem was among the 15 technologies and 13 companies selected from around the world. The winners are selected against five key criteria: the technology’s novelty in the marketplace, innovativeness, demonstrated success, broad commercial appeal, and ability to make a significant impact across the offshore community.

FlatFish is an advanced underwater inspection drone which aims to inspect and monitor complex subsea infrastructures in an innovative and safe manner, from shallow waters down to 3,000mwd. The drone features an advanced AI-based control system and navigation features combined with state-of-the-art inspection capabilities which have been demonstrated in a deepwater pilot project executed at almost 1,800mwd offshore Brazil with the support of Shell Brasil, Saipem, Senai CIMATEC and Petrobras.

FlatFish is also part of the Hydrone platform, a ground-breaking subsea robotics programme conceived to support remote, vessel-free operations in order to reduce costs, risks and environmental impact of offshore operations, boasting 90% fewer CO2 emissions compared to conventional ROV services.

Mauro Piasere, Chief Operating Officer of Saipem’s Robotics and Industrialised Solutions Business Line, said, “This prestigious award is a testament to Saipem’s commitment to the development of cutting-edge solutions for the offshore energy market, namely for subsea asset integrity and security surveillance, enabling further cost efficiency and decarbonisation efforts for all future subsea developments for our energy clients.”

Subsea intervention technology specialist, Interventek, has agreed to supply a complete set of 20,000psi open-water well intervention shear and seal values to Trendsetter Engineering Inc.

The agreement allows Trendsetter exclusive global rights to deploy the 5-1/8” open-water valves for the next five years, with the first set to be delivered later this year.

The 20K Revolution valves are designed as a compact, modular addition for lightweight subsea intervention systems. They will provide the safety-critical well control function within Trendsetter’s new 20K Trident Subsea Intervention System, which is scheduled for the first field operations on a high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) subsea completion and intervention campaign in the Gulf of Mexico.  

Interventek has previously supplied Trendsetter with serval 15,000psi Open-Water Revolution Valves, which were successfully deployed on multiple campaigns using its 15k Trident Intervention Systems.

Tony Kitchener, Sales and Marketing Director at Interventek, said, “Our new 20k Open Water Revolution Valves is leading the way in HPHT subsea well intervention safety. Qualified to rigorous API-17G and API 17TR8 standards, the valve maintains the superior cutting and resilient sealing capability that our unique technology is known for, delivering a future-proof solution for today’s operators.

“Our Revolution design is flexible and scalable so, with Trendsetter’s valuable and long-standing collaboration, it was natural for us to push ahead together to deliver the world’s first open-water HPHT intervention solution.”

Mike Cargol, Vice President of Services at Trendsetter, commented, “Interventek’s compact and high-performing Revolution valve is the ideal choice for our range of lightweight and modular Trident intervention systems. This technology is the key to achieving a reliable HPHT solution with around a 60% size and weight saving compared to other offerings.

“The result is a robust system which can be reconfigured to support hydraulic, riserless or open-water risered interventions and mobilised quickly on a broad range of vessels with minimal modifications. The bottom line for the operator is enhanced safety, rapid responses, increased operational efficiency and reduced costs.”

Perenco and Petrodec, a decommissioning services specialist, has announced that the A2D platform topside – located in the Amethyst Field, UKCS – has been safely removed for final dismantling.

The operation was successfully conducted using Petrodec’s patented ‘skidding’ technique deployed by its dedicated jack-up the ‘ERDA’ in the southern North Sea. With a weight of 1,179 tons, this was the heaviest Amethyst topside to have been removed so far.

The news follows the Hydrocarbon Safe (HCS) Campaign on all platforms and brine flushing of intra-field and export pipelines, the plug and abandon of all platform wells, and the removal of C1D, B1D and A2D topsides with a combined total topsides weight of 2,900 tons. The final operations to remove the topsides and four steel jackets of platform A1D are scheduled from January 2024.

The Amethyst field was one of the later-life assets acquired by Perenco from BP in 2012 as part a package of SNS assets. Perenco subsequently consolidated its position to 100% on Amethyst by acquiring the participating interests of Centrica and Murphy Oil in licences P.005, P.030, P.050 and P.133. Amethyst consisted of four conventional fixed jacket wellhead structures with helipads and cranes installed.

The platforms A1D, A2D, B1D and C1D had six or nine slots, and six or seven producing wells. The field stopped producing in 2020, following which Perenco UK started the application for decommissioning operations in collaboration with Petrodec.

Rainier Verhulst, Petrodec’s General Manager, said, “The successful and safe skidding operation to remove the heaviest topside to date exemplifies Petrodec’s technical ingenuity as a decommissioning specialist, bringing together the technical expertise of a contractor and the reliability of a decommissioning operator.

“It also clearly highlights Perenco’s integrated approach to late-life assets, first extending the production lifespan of assets by operational efficiencies and investment, then developing innovative and fit-for-purpose solutions to safely decommission the facilities. I would like to thank all of those involved.”