Latest News

• Region: North Sea
• Date: Sept 2022

Leading energy services provider, Expro, has successfully completed the plug and abandonment of Ireland’s first indigenous gas wells.

Expro provided the delivery of integrated subsea and well test services over an eight-month period to intervene, plug and abandon subsea wells from a mobile offshore drilling unit located in the Celtic Sea.

The intervention scope utilised Expro’s ELSA (Expro Landing String Assemblies) system, supported by a complete backup system and direct hydraulic topside and subsea controls package.

Achieving more than 3,000 successful operations globally, ELSA is Expro’s industry-leading subsea well access technology, providing clients with a safe and environmentally secure operating system for commissioning and decommissioning subsea wells.

Expro’s Vice President of Subsea Well Access, Graham Cheyne, said, “With ten wells successfully intervened and abandoned one after another in a short timeframe, the reliability of the system was proven with 100% operational uptime and zero NPT, improving the efficiency of Expro and our client’s subsea operations over the extended operational period.

“This project not only enhances our already established subsea well access experience and track record, but it also demonstrates our strong position to deliver value and extraordinary performance in the integrated decommissioning and plug and abandonment market.”

• Region: Australia
• Topics: Decommissioning
• Date: Oct, 2022

The decommissioning of the Northern Endeavour facility has reached a significant milestone as contractor Petrofac Facilities Management Limited (Petrofac) has begun Phase One of the decommissioning process.

The process will see the Northern Endeavour disconnected from subsea equipment and the suspension of the oil wells.

The facility is moored in the Commonwealth waters in the Timor Sea, between the Laminaria and Corallina oil fields. It stopped oil production in 2019, after being shut down by National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) for immediate breeches in health and safety.

“The Australian Government remains committed to the successful decommissioning of the Northern Endeavour, the removal of infrastructure and the remediation of the Laminaria and Corallina oil fields,” said Madeleine King, Minister of Resources and Northern Australia.

“Petrofac taking operational control is a significant step in the decommissioning process.”

The US$355mn contract was drawn up with Petrofac in March 2022 to deliver the first phase of the decommissioning project.

• Region: Gulf of Mexico
• Date: Sept 2022

C-Innovation (C-I) and Grand Isle Shipyard, LLC (GIS), two strategic oil and gas industry partners, have been awarded a plug and abandonment contract by Helix Alliance Decom, LLC, to provide pre-feed services for the decommissioning of three offshore platforms for a major deepwater client.

In Phase I of the project, C-I provided ROV services to deliver marine water inspection and integrated the data within MODS software to provide live operations for the client operating fixed leg platforms in 165-200 ft of water. The GIS Aerobotics Drone Division provided aerial inspection services. The joint technical innovations aim to determine the current condition of the wells and the facility, enabling the timely and cost-effective decommissioning of the wells, platform and jacket for each of the three platforms.

The partnership harnessed its technology to offer increased safety margins. All of the inspections were able to be completed via line wireless transmission from the back of the boat within a connex box without requiring the deployment of personnel on ropes.

Michael MacMillan, Operations Manager, C-I, stated, “The equipment used took very little time to mobilise and provided subsea operations in a safe and efficient manner while using a limited number of personnel. The ability to launch this type of ROV from almost any asset not only allows operations to be efficient but also mitigates safety risks while practically eliminating the traditional risks associated with the launch and recovery of an ROV.”

DaCoda Bartels, GIS Aerobotics Division Manager and Pilot, said, “The GIS drone can safely operate from up to 100 ft away from the asset as we have the camera stabilisation technology to zoom in on an area of interest. Most of these areas are not accessible by human personnel. We are able to live stream the drone's camera view in real time to make informed decisions on the spot. It’s a super fast and super safe alternative, where the only potential risk is to the equipment rather than the personnel.”

MacMillan added, “Our partnership with GIS enables C-I to continue to demonstrate our flexibility to provide resources and equipment in a non-traditional scenario. The availability of equipment and personnel for these types of scopes is more important now than ever, due to the demands of today’s market.”

• Region: North Sea
• Topics: Decommissioning
• Date: Sept, 2022

AF Gruppen, a leading contracting and industrial group, has been awarded a contract from TotalEnergies EP Nederland B.V. for the removal and recycling platforms in the Dutch sector of the North Sea.

The contract includes engineering, preparatory works, removal, transportation, recycling and disposal (EPRD) of 10 platforms with a combined weight of 17,000 tons.

AF Gruppen has developed the technology to be able to treat and recycle up to 80% of materials that otherwise would have been sent to a disposal site, pioneering itself as an industry leader in environmental solutions.

The project will start immediately after contract signing and is planned to be completed by the end of 2025. The platforms will be transported to the AF Environment Base Vats for recycling.

• Region: Asia Pacific
• Date: Sept, 2022

Maersk Drilling has secured a contract extension with Sarawak Shell Berhad and Sabah Shell Petroleum Co Ltd (SSB/SSPC) for the seventh generation drillship Maersk Viking.

SSB/SSPC have executed the remaining three one-well options of the current drillship contract and awarded an additional eight-well contract to Maersk Drilling.

A five-well work scope will be novated to PTTEP for drilling and plugging and abandonment activities at the Kikeh field offshore Sabah, Malaysia, with a total estimated duration of 116 days and an expected commencement of the first well in November 2022.

Following completion of its work scope with PTTEP, Maersk Viking will undergo a scheduled periodic survey, after which the rig will commence a six-well drilling campaign with SSB/SSPC. This work scope is expected to commence in Q4 2023, with an estimated duration of 281 days.

The total firm contract value of the extension and additional contract is approximately US$153mn, including demobilisation and mobilisation fees, as well as fees for the use of managed pressure drilling on certain wells.

“PTTEP welcomes Maersk Drilling into our exciting 2022-23 deep-water drilling campaign, and we look forward to forging a strong partnership in Malaysia,” said Nitipong Kongpat, Head of Malaysia Wells Operations for PTTEP.

“We are thrilled to announce that Maersk Viking will continue to support Malaysian oil and gas developments for the next two years. This agreement is a testament to our great collaboration with Shell, and by coordinating the rig’s schedule across several different deep-water operators, we are driving efficiency and leveraging synergies for everyone involved,” said COO Morten Kelstrup of Maersk Drilling.

• Region: Latin America
• Date: Sept, 2022

The third well intervention in the Baúna campaign, comprising the installation of a new electric submersible pump in well SPS-92, has been completed and the well brought back on line.

Commissioning of the newly installed pump is progressing well, with the pump expected to be operating at target levels within the next two weeks. Current oil production from the well is approximately 9,500 bopd, compared with 5,500 bopd prior to the intervention. Production from the first two interventions continues to be optimised and together with SPS-92, this has taken total oil production from the Baúna field to approximately 22,000 bopd, towards the upper end of preintervention campaign expectations.

In light of the already strong results achieved from the intervention campaign, and as the BAN-1 expected production uplift of a few hundred bopd is relatively small, Karoon has decided to defer the BAN-1 intervention, to optimise both the overall programme and rig utilisation. Consequently, the Maersk Developer rig will now move to the Patola field, where the first of two new development wells is expected to commence drilling in the next few days.

Julian Fowles, CEO and Managing Director of Karoon, commented, “We are very pleased to have completed the three major interventions on Baúna with no significant safety or environmental incidents. Production has increased from approximately 12,600 bopd immediately before the intervention programme to approximately 22,000 bopd now, with potential further upside as the SPS-92 new pump commissioning is completed, taking production towards the upper end of our targeted uplift range of 5,000 – 10,000 bopd. This is an excellent result, and I would like to thank our Karoon Brazil team, who have significant expertise and a strong track record operating in offshore environments, and our contractor partners, for all their hard work in delivering this programme safely and efficiently. We look forward to commencing drilling on the Patola field, our first development project since taking over as operator of the Baúna concession, once the rig has been mobilised to site.”

• Region: Australia
• Topics: Decommissioning
• Date: Sept, 2022

Engineering company Monadelphous Group Limited has secured a contract to provide operations, maintenance and industrial services to support Petrofac in the decommissioning of the Northern Endeavour Floating Production, Storage and Offtake (FPSO) facility.

The Northern Endeavour is a 274 m long FPSO, permanently moored between the Laminaria and Corallina oilfields, approximately 550 km northwest of Darwin in the Timor Sea. Production began in 1999 and peaked at 170,000 barrels of oil per day.

In 2019, the facility was shut down by NOPSEMA after an immediate threat to health and safety was found at the facility. After owners Northern Oil & Gas Australia went into liquidation, it fell to the Government to maintain and ultimately decommission it.

Petrofac was contracted earlier this year as outsourced operator responsible for decommissioning and disconnection of the FPSO. The scope includes the provision of its unique integrated services, working with both local and global suppliers.

The support to Petrofac represents Monadelphous’ first offshore decommissioning contract with work expected to be completed in the second half of 2023.

It represents a host of new contracts and contract extensions awarded to Monadelphous totalling approximately US$160mn.

• Region: North Sea
• Topics: Decommissioning
• Date: Sept, 2022

Boaty McBoatface, a robot submarine lovingly named through an Internet poll gone awry, is being utilised by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) to conduct research on end-of-life oil fields off the coast of the Shetland Islands, North Sea.

The robot will be exploring several oil and gas structures in a bid to revolutionise the way marine surveys are conducted and ultimately protect the marine environment while helping the industry transition towards net-zero.

The Autonomous Techniques for infraStructure Ecological Assessment (AT-SEA) project, led by the NOC will trial the concept of using submarines like Boaty for high-tech, low-impact monitoring to pick up any potential environmental impacts at these industrial sites. This may eventually replace the current approach for environmental monitoring for decommissioning that requires dedicated ships and teams of people offshore.

The robots used will gather data on the water, pollutants and currents, as well as taking images of the sea floor. The team will test whether these robotic systems can gather equivalent information to the surveys currently done using ships. In doing so, emissions, risks and the cost of these operations will be significantly reduced in the future, thanks to the automated technology being developed at the NOC.

Project Lead for AT-SEA, Daniel Jones from the National Oceanography Centre, explained, “The overall goal of the project is to improve the environmental protection of the North Sea at a reduced cost and impact to the environment. We aim to demonstrate how this leading robotic technology from the NOC could be used worldwide to support this crucial ocean monitoring.”

There are currently thousands of oil and gas structures in the sea that are approaching the end of their lives – in UK waters alone there are nearly 500. As part of decommissioning, they typically need to be removed and the environment returned to a safe state. To ensure that no harmful effects will occur to the marine environment, decommissioning operations need to be supported by an environmental assessment and subsequent monitoring.

Dr Jones continued, “This technology has the potential to change the way marine surveys are carried out in the future. Autonomous submarines could offer many advantages over current approaches; improving the quality and quantity of environmental information while cutting the cost and environmental impact for a survey ship and its crew. The AT-SEA project will test this concept in UK waters and carry out the first fully autonomous environmental assessment of multiple decommissioning sites.”

As well as the decommissioned sites, the robot will visit a special marine protected area that is known to have natural leaks of gas, to check the robot can reliably detect a leak should one occur in the future.

• Region: Latin America
• Date: Sept, 2022

Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. has entered into a two-year extension of its well intervention charter and services contracts with Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) for the Siem Helix 2 well intervention vessel offshore Brazil.

The negotiated extension is scheduled to conclude in December 2024.

Scotty Sparks, Helix’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, commented, “We are glad to negotiate this contract extension and look forward to continuing our long and productive working relationship with Petrobras. Market conditions globally and in Brazil have been improving, and demand for our world-class assets and experienced crews has been steadily increasing.”

The Siem Helix 2 is a purpose-built, advanced well intervention vessel capable of performing a wide range of subsea services including production enhancement, well decommissioning, subsea installation, offshore crane and Remotely Operated Vehicle operations, offshore construction and emergency response. The vessel is currently performing riser-based well intervention activities in the Santos and Campos Basins and to date has completed more than 60 well interventions for Petrobras.

Sparks added, “The Siem Helix 2 has consistently provided industry – and global-leading well intervention services to Petrobras. This two-year extension demonstrates the capacity for Helix to continually provide innovative solutions to fit client needs, backed by our experience and proven track record, and supports our Energy Transition business model of offering clients the ability to maximize production from their existing wells.”

• Region: North Sea
• Topics: Decommissioning
• Date: Sept, 2022

Neptune Energy has announced the award of a US$30mn decommissioning contract to Well-Safe Solutions, for a campaign covering more than 20 wells located across eight Dutch and UK North Sea fields.

It is the first multi-region, multi-well decommissioning campaign award by Neptune to a single rig contractor.

Well-Safe Solutions’ Well-Safe Protector jack-up rig will carry out the plug and abandonment of a minimum of four subsea and 17 platform wells located in Dutch and UK waters.

Neptune Energy’s Managing Director in the Netherlands, Lex de Groot, said, “Safely decommissioning assets at the end of their economic producing lives is an important part of our work. We plug and abandon wells, taking everything with us and leaving the seabed in a clean state. That is our responsibility and we don’t take it lightly.”

“Working with a single rig contractor for this extensive, cross-border decommissioning campaign is an innovative way to reduce time and cost.”

Duncan Morison, Rig Manager of the Well-Safe Protector, commented, “The Well-Safe Protector boasts a large volume of deck space for tubing, casing and conductor recovery, allowing effective batch operations and will help Neptune Energy realise considerable operational savings.”

The Well-Safe Protector is scheduled to mobilise in Q1 2023 to the Dutch and UK sectors for P&A operations in the fields.

• Region: Gulf of Mexico
• Topics: Integrity
• Date: Sept, 2022

The Department of the Interior today has proposed a new rule to ensure offshore oil and gas operations on the Outer Continental Shelf are conducted with the utmost safety and oversight standards.

The proposition by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) will revise the 2019 Well Control Rule and focus on well integrity and blowout prevention. These innovations will help protect human lives and the environment by incorporating the latest technology and the lessons learned from operator experience and incident data since the current rule was adopted.

“Protecting human lives and the environment has always been BSEE’s highest priority, and this proposed rulemaking will further ensure safe and environmentally responsible offshore energy production,” said BSEE Director Kevin M. Sligh. “These proposed revisions to the Well Control Rule are the result of knowledge and experience gained by stakeholders and BSEE since the 2019 rule was implemented. They will protect workers’ lives and the environment from the potentially devastating effects of blowouts and offshore oil spills.”

In the immediate aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon incident in 2010, BSEE adopted several recommendations from multiple investigation teams to improve the safety of offshore energy operations, leading to the publication of the 2016 Well Control Rule. In May 2019, BSEE published a final rule that weakened certain safety provisions. Today’s proposed rule would revise some of the items that were amended or rescinded in 2019.

To further protect human lives and the environment, the Department is proposing revisions that would:

• Require blowout preventer systems (BOPs) to be able to close and seal the wellbore to the well’s kick tolerance design at all times;
• Remove the option for operators to submit failure data to designated third parties and instead require the direct submittal of failure data to BSEE;
• Require failure analysis and investigations to start within 90 days instead of 120 days;
• Require independent third parties to be accredited by a qualified standards development organisation;
• Specify that surface BOPs on existing floating facilities must follow the dual shear ram requirements when replacing an entire BOP stack;
• Require that remotely operated vehicles be capable of opening and closing each shear ram on a BOP; 
• Require the operator to provide test results to BSEE within 72 hours after completion of the tests if BSEE is unable to witness testing.

Publication of the proposed rule also initiates a 60-day public comment period. 

• Region: North Sea
• Date: Sept, 2022

The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) has given its consent for Aker BP to use the mobile drilling facility AKOFS Seafarer for well intervention activities on the Skarv field.

The AKOFS Seafarer is owned by AKFOS Offshore which undertakes well intervention and subsea installations in Norway as well as internationally.

Located in the Norwegian Sea, the Skarv field has been developed with a floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) with five subsea templates with 15 wells. Work is ongoing to evaluate the potential of infill wells and other prospects in the area due to a decline in production.