Global energy services leader Expro has secured a contract extension with a major operator, bringing cutting-edge subsea safety technology to the Gulf of America (GOA)
On 4 June 2026, the firm confirmed a comprehensive contract extension that will see it continue to deliver essential subsea completion and intervention services within the challenging waters of the GOA. This new agreement, set to span up to five years, serves as a testament to a collaborative partnership that has successfully endured for over twenty years.
Capitalising on the momentum of recent fruitful projects, this renewed arrangement notably features the deployment of one of the company's most recent innovations. For the first time within this partnership, Expro will deploy its proprietary Solus technology, a highly specialised shear-and-seal valve. This sophisticated piece of equipment is meticulously designed to provide a critical, additional layer of safety and reliability throughout complex subsea operations. By supporting robust well integrity in some of the most unforgiving and challenging offshore environments, the deployment of this valve illustrates Expro's ongoing commitment to bringing pioneering 'new technology' to the global market.
Under the terms of the extended contract, Expro will be tasked with supplying comprehensive subsea landing string services. The firm will draw on the extensive subsea well access expertise cultivated within its North and Latin America (NLA) regional operations to accomplish this. The tailored system is engineered to enable highly safe and efficient well intervention and completion activities. Crucially, it offers the necessary adaptability and operational flexibility required to meet the client's constantly evolving project demands.
Speaking on the significance of the agreement, Daniel More, Vice President, Subsea Well Access of Expro, said, “This contract represents the continued strength of our long-term relationship with the global operator and underlines their confidence in Expro’s subsea capabilities. We’re extremely proud of the success we’ve achieved together and look forward to supporting their ongoing projects in the Gulf of America with safe, reliable, and efficient subsea services.”
This prolonged partnership reinforces Expro’s position as a comprehensive 'well lifecycle partner'. From carbon storage well testing to complex subsea plug and abandonment campaigns, the company's diverse portfolio continues to evolve in step with its clientele's needs.
The PetroJarl Rosebank FPSO vessel has arrived on site to the west of Shetland, marking a major milestone in production generation goals from one of the largest undeveloped oil and gas field in the United Kingdom.
Once regulatory processes are cleared and formal government approval are in place, the field is considered significant to North Sea jobs, the UK economy and energy security.
Welcoming the arrival, Russell Borthwick, Chief Executive of Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, said, “Despite a protracted regulatory process which remains ongoing, it’s great to see work continuing to bring Rosebank closer to the point of production with the FPSO arriving at the field in recent days.
“Rosebank represents the very best in North Sea engineering capability, a multibillion-pound investment by the developer, major contracts for the UK supply chain and thousands of energy jobs supported throughout the lifetime of the project.
“New North Sea oil and gas development is vital for delivering energy security and economic growth for the UK.
“Rosebank is exactly the sort of at-scale oil and gas project will help tackle the chronic short supply of essential fuels in the UK and across Europe right now and bring more gas into homes from as early as next year. The reality is that Britain still relies on oil and gas for over 70% of our energy needs. While we still need it, we should produce as much of our it as possible from our own waters.
“There’s still a bright future for the North Sea, provided we see the regulatory process moving, the tax regime reformed and a pragmatic approach on how we secure the supply of domestic oil and gas that Britain needs in the years to come.”
Led by North America the global decommissioning industry is seeing a shift from a regulatory obligation approach to embracing sustainability practices that involve cost optimisation strategies and meeting environmental goals.
Decommissioning is not being seen as a liability anymore but a multi-billion-dollar opportunity in the form of new industries and multiple means of employment generation. This outlook sits perfectly with the requirements of the global energy transition landscape.
This is also the ideal way to tackle the burgeoning decommissioning liabilities as thousands of offshore platforms approach end-of-life across mature basins. The market is projected to witness strong compound annual growth rate through 2030, fueled by aging infrastructure across the Gulf of Mexico, among other regions. Well plugging & abandonment (P&A) activities has seen a boost alongside strict environmental compliance regulations and rising investments in subsea cutting, heavy-lift removal, and digital planning technologies.
These scenarios have pushed decommissioning to the forefront, with asset retirement and lifecycle management determining operators' annual budgets. They are working to stay up to date with regulatory risk exposures, forecasting capital expenditure cycles and tender pipelines, and aligning with ESG-driven investment strategies.
The significance of decommissioning in the offshore industry has led to a structured market growth, whereby players are prioritising regional entry strategies, building partnerships with EPC and subsea service providers, optimising cost modeling and bid strategies, and improving long-term investment planning.
SLB has reached an agreement to acquire US-based technology company, Tachyus Corp., in a move which aims to strengthen SLB’s digital portfolio with differentiated physics-based reservoir modelling capabilities that enable faster reservoir management decisions.
Demand is increasing for technologies that support continuous reservoir management as operators work to maximise recovery from existing assets. While traditional high-fidelity reservoir simulators support field development decisions to optimise recovery, Tachyus technologies enable operators to make more tactical decisions in response to changing conditions.
The technologies can evaluate thousands of reservoir scenarios in minutes, enabling reservoir and production teams to adjust field strategies based on current asset performance while maintaining alignment with longer-term development plans.
Tachyus’ technologies combine machine learning with reservoir physics to model behaviour under different conditions. Its Aqueon platform has been deployed across more than 7,500 wells globally, supporting waterflood management, pressure forecasting, production optimisation, saltwater disposal optimisation for unconventional operations, and EOR operations.
Rakesh Jaggi, President of SLB’s Digital Business, said, “Reservoir management is becoming increasingly dynamic as operators look to maximise recovery from existing assets. The addition of Tachyus will strengthen our ability to deliver operational reservoir management workflows that help customers manage and optimise complex enhanced oil recovery schemes.”
SLB plans to integrate Tachyus technology into its Delfi digital platform and Lumi data and AI platform, enabling closed-loop reservoir and production management workflows.
The offshore energy sector faces a pivotal moment as ageing infrastructure and supply chain constraints collide with a massive backlog of projects.
At the Decommissioning and Abandonment Gulf of America (D&A GOA) 2026 conference held on 20 and 21 April, industry leaders addressed an urgent need to change the status quo through collaboration and conversation.
The scale of the challenge in the Gulf of America is staggering. Currently, more than 2,700 wells and 500 platforms are overdue for decommissioning. A primary concern is the rise of 'boomerang assets': infrastructure returned to predecessor operators in severely degraded conditions, often lacking reliable documentation or clear well status. One operator described receiving a platform nicknamed the 'widow maker', which featured spongy decks, missing handrails, and an inoperable crane and helideck. As decades' worth of deprioritised, underfunded infrastructure compounds, these dangerous boomerangs are becoming the rule rather than the exception.
Compounding the physical decay is a shrinking execution window caused by structural supply chain decline.
Industry experts argued that the sustainable path forward requires moving away from transactional contracting towards long-term operator-contractor partnerships. AI is no longer merely a talking point. Other innovations highlighted include:
Promethean, a co-chair of the event, emphasised that the quality of planning directly determines execution quality. Their model relies on lump sum commitments rather than time-and-materials arrangements to drive cost efficiency. A case study presented by SVP of Commercial, Steve Louis, detailed a high-risk project: an orphaned well on a platform listing at 12 degrees with a confirmed gas leak. Following five intensive days of engineering and risk assessment and seven days of offshore work, the asset was permanently abandoned under budget with zero significant downtime.
As D&A GOA 2026 concluded, the consensus was clear: the industry must embrace supermajor-level discipline and new technology to turn these liabilities into opportunities.
US oil services giant Halliburton remains upbeat about prospects in its local market for drilling, interventions and associated work despite North American revenues dipping slightly.
The company’s North American revenues for the first quarter of 2026 hit US$2.1bn, a 4% decrease when compared to the first quarter of 2025.
In its Q1 statement, it reported that this decline was primarily driven by lower stimulation activity and decreased fluid services in the Gulf of America.
It also cited lower stimulation activity and decreased artificial lift activity in the US Land segments.
Partially offsetting the decreases in the domestic market were increased drilling-related services in US Land and higher completion tool sales in the region.
“In North America, I see clear signs that we are in the early innings of a recovery,” said Jeff Miller, Halliburton’s chairman, president and CEO.
The group’s performance in international markets also held up well, outpacing disruptions from the Middle East conflict, he added.
Much of the focus in the Q1 statement was on new technology highlights.
Most recently, Halliburton launched its Volta all-electric control system, part of SmartWell intelligent completions, which it claims sets a new standard for engineered reservoir management, optimisation, and insight.
It uses field‑proven technologies and an open communication network to allow customers to execute continuous health and reservoir monitoring and gain critical insights to improve well performance.
The objective is to increase annual well output and avoid deferred production through reduced recovery time from planned or unplanned shut-ins.
Strict regulations by the United States administration are driving North America's market share in end-of-life services, which leads globally, followed closely by Europe.
Regulatory push besides, environmental accountability and unavoidable age-old infrastructure liabilities are making operators to sit up and notice. They are equally prioritising funding and execution of removal plans to meet rising public as well as investor scrutiny of idle offshore assets. Regulatory bodies like OSPAR have upped surveillance and issued tighter deadlines for platform removal and seabed clearance.
Dedicated divisions for asset retirement and long-term decommissioning are taking up visible space in the annual work plans of oil majors.
The rapidly growing sector is now dynamically placed, involving big players in oilfield services innovations such as Halliburton, SLB, Baker Hughes. TechnipFMC and Aker Solutions, to name a few. Cutting edge offerings from them, including advanced cutting tools, cold-cutting technology for underwater structures, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), and single-lift vessel technologies, among others, are supporting operators to deliver decommissioning liabilities in a safe, cost-effective and sustainable manner.
These companies are also known for their specialised services, with Halliburton, SLB and Baker Hughes leading in well plugging and abandonment, while TechnipFMC and Aker Solutions specialising in full-field decommissioning projects. Saipem and Petrofac, on the other hand, bring heavy-lift and project management expertise to complex removals.
These tools are helping operators tackle challenging deepwater situations in North America, which is predominantly attracting decommissioning developments.
With a shift of strategic focus towards deepwater operations, Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc will be selling its Gulf of America-focused shallow water abandonment business to C-Dive, LLC, a member of the Chouest group of companies.
The sale involved Helix's divestment of its entire equity interests in the shallow water abandonment segment for US$107.5mn cash at closing, to be adjusted for working capital and other transaction expenses.
This comes after Helix entered a definitive agreement with Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc to expand its services in offshore operations through a diversified high-specification fleet of specialty vessels, supported by subsea robotics, well intervention and technical service capabilities.
The sale of the shallow water abandonment business will allow Helix to heighten focus on the partnership with Hornbeck, providing innovative and integrated subsea and marine transportation solutions to customers across deepwater energy, defense and renewables.
Scotty Sparks, Helix’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, said, “This transaction sharpens Helix’s focus on deepwater well intervention and decommissioning, robotics and other offshore services as part of our larger global strategy. We are pleased with our accomplishments since acquiring the shallow water abandonment business, as we achieved record financial performance, made improvements in processes and systems, and emphasised safety culture. We believe the Chouest Group will serve as a strategic owner well positioned to capitalise on this positive momentum and continue the long-term growth of that business.”
Ensuring end-to-end services for clients, Helix Energy Solutions and Hornbeck Offshore Services have announced a strategic combination across multiple sectors including deepwater energy.
The strategic combination will create a scaled, life-of-field business offering engineered solutions in offshore oil and gas, among other sectors. The consolidation results to a diversified and expanded high-specification fleet of specialty vessels, supported by subsea robotics, well intervention and technical service capabilities, including trenching subsea pipelines and cables. Clients can expect innovative and integrated subsea and marine transportation solutions across deepwater energy, defense and renewables. The multi-faceted service portfolio will span the entire life-cycle of deepwater fields, bringing together Helix's intervention and decommissioning expertise, and the predominance of Hornbeck's high specification offshore service vessels in the Americas.
As both the partners have entered into a definitive agreement to combine in an all-stock transaction, once effective, it will secure approximately 55% for Hornbeck shareholders while around 45% for Helix shareholders.
"In merging two proven industry leaders with industry-leading teams, assets and offerings, this transaction creates a global deepwater vessel and services company with the scale and capabilities to deliver sustainable, long-term growth," said Owen Kratz, President and Chief Executive Officer of Helix. "This combination is a compelling opportunity to enhance value for Helix’s shareholders, building on our momentum as one of the world’s premier marine service contractors."
"We are confident that by capitalizing on each company’s unique expertise, we will unlock meaningful strategic and operational benefits that enhance our ability to serve customers worldwide and drive significant shareholder value creation," said Todd M Hornbeck, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hornbeck. "The combined company will be a growth-oriented company driven by the desire to provide innovative, high-quality, value-added business solutions with an emphasis on safety and an entrepreneurial culture."
In a boost to rig activity in the US Gulf, Harbour Energy's subsidiary, LLOG Exploration Company LLC, has extended contracts with Seadrill Limited, adding approximately US$260mn to the drilling contractor's contract backlog.
The year-long contract extension secures ultra-deepwater drillship West Neptune's services for operations that are set to start in September 2026. On the other hand, the West Vela ultra-deepwater drillship will be operating for an additional duration of 270 days, which is likely to commence in August 2026.
“We are pleased to extend our working relationship with LLOG, building on more than a decade of productive collaboration and shared success. The strong operational performance delivered by the West Vela and West Neptune teams continues to help us win follow-on work,” said Seadrill's President and Chief Executive Officer, Samir Ali.
“Securing this backlog enhances revenue visibility and supports free cash flow generation as we navigate near-term softness in the US Gulf. The West Vela and West Neptune are positioned favourably for availability in 2027 as global floater utilisation is expected to improve,” he said.
This follows the last contract extension between Seadrill and LLOG Exploration for a four-month programme in the US Gulf, which secured approximately US$48mn to Seadrill’s backlog.
The Sevan Louisiana had also received a contract award in the US Gulf from an undisclosed operator for a two-month programme. This engagement is set to start directly after its current contract with Walter Oil and Gas. The campaign will mark the first use of the Trendsetter well-intervention equipment in the region.
As digitalisation continues to shape every sector of the offshore industry, decommissioning cannot remain out of its influence. A US$7.2bn market that is projected to see solid growth over the next four years is reflective of the sector's urgency which operators can no longer overlook. The liabilities of decommissioning can be best addressed by choosing the digital path, which will play a significant role in supporting operators by reducing both costs and downtime, even when ensuring safety and keeping project delivery sustainable.
Operators can rely on digitalisation right from the start, whereby they can use an accurate digital model of the targeted platform to determine loopholes that require addressing. This digital model will highlight the extent of damages operators are looking at, from corrosion to storm impact, to name a few, before they formulate the next steps.
Tackling gigantic topsides and jackets can be prone to incorrect cuts when attempted manually. To eliminate such risks, there are digital solutions that generate optimal cutting plan to dismantle structures of several tons into portable numbers. Before beginning the project in person, the virtual run-through will give an idea of user-defined elevations or check the forces that goes behind the sections.
When these huge platforms have to be moved, they have to pass uncertain conditions, including vessel stability, crane capacity and harsh environments. These challenges can be minimised by deploying an integrated software approach which combines structural analysis with hyrodynamic and hydrostatic analysis.
Analysis softwares can also support operators to plan sustainable outcomes of decommissioning, such as the rigs-to-reef programmes. These tools can help gauge whether the structure's final deployment is proper and safe for a lasting period.
CB&I has completed the acquisition of Petrofac’s Asset Solutions business, which is actively engaged on various decommissioning and abandonment (D&A) assignments in the Gulf of America.
A leading provider of operations, maintenance, wells and decommissioning services for onshore and offshore energy assets, with projects across the globe, the Asset Solutions’ portfolio includes work to decommission the South Pass 60, South Pass 6 and East Breaks 165 fields.
Announcing the closure of the transaction on 9 April, 2026, Mark Butts, CB&I President and CEO, said it marked “an exciting new era for our company” as it welcomed approximately 3,000 Asset Solutions colleagues to the newly-expanded group.
“This acquisition strengthens CB&I’s portfolio with a complementary reimbursable contracting business, delivering predictable cash flow and enhancing service capabilities,” he said.
“It also supports CB&I’s diversification into integrated services, expands customer relationships, and opens pathways for growth in international markets.”
The acquisition also provides Asset Solutions with access to CB&I’s debt‑free balance sheet and global liquidity, enabling the business to operate from a position of greater financial strength.
John Pearson, Chief Operating Officer of CB&I Asset Solutions, said this enhanced stability ensures continuity of service delivery for customers and creates a solid platform for expanding capabilities across key markets internationally.
“With the backing of CB&I’s financial strength, global reach and operational capabilities, the business is exceptionally well positioned to accelerate our growth ambitions,” said Pearson.
“Asset Solutions is now able to invest with confidence, expand service offerings, enhance the reliability and efficiency of the assets we support, and deliver even greater value to customers around the world.”
In 2022, Petrofac and Promethean Decommissioning Company (PDC) formed an alliance to decommission the South Pass 60, South Pass 6 and East Breaks 165 fields, offshore Gulf of America.
The legacy offshore fields and assets include nine platforms, 200 wells and 32 pipeline segments.
As the nominated Decommissioning Services Provider, in a contract valued at around US$200mn, the scope of work includes the safe, efficient, and assured decommissioning of the fields.
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