James Fisher Decommissioning, part of James Fisher and Sons plc, has completed a significant decommissioning project in the Gulf of Thailand.
After extending the contract with a major offshore engineering, preparations, removal and disposal (EPRD) operator, the project became the largest to date for James Fisher, involving the removal of 25 offshore jackets in support of the client’s wider asset end-of-life campaign.
James Fisher was able to support the client through the expertise of its in-house decommissioning team and equipment, including abrasive waterjet cutting, hydraulic demolition shears and diamond wire saws.
To complete the multi-million-pound project, the decommissioning specialist utilised abrasive cut verification technology which ensured operations are completed successfully on the first attempt and without the need to re-evaluate the initial cut. It is estimated that, by improving efficiency of the operations in this way, cutting time was reduced by 50%.
“We pride ourselves on providing bespoke, environmentally focused solutions to overcome some of the most complex decommissioning structures faced by our customers,” Mark Stephen, Decommissioning Director for James Fisher, remarked. “This type of operation was a first for James Fisher Decommissioning in terms of jacket removal volume and duration, and we are extremely proud to have been part of the project. Utilising our strong in-house decommissioning capabilities and real-time monitoring technology, we saved valuable project time during the cutting process while ensuring the project was completed to the highest standards for our client.”
This represents the latest success for the company since the launch of the decommissioning business line.
Referencing the many mature offshore fields that are drawing ever-closer to retirement, Baker Hughes has published a 'Perspectives' article exploring why improving the cost for plug and abandonment is not only an industry opportunity but an industry imperative.
The article highlighted that, for the first time in history, a large proportion of offshore oil and gas infrastructure is now careening towards costly decommissioning as productivity wanes. According to Wood Mackenzie Lens data, by 2030 global decommissioning expenditure will hit an average of US$15bn a year, rising to US$25bn in 2035. Between 2021 and 2050, a staggering US$400bn will be spent.
Lorna Yuill, leader at Oil Field Services and Equipment (OFSE) Baker Hughes Growth Hub leader, said, “If we can properly support the well decommissioning phase, we can save our customers money while at the same time securing good outcomes for the environment.”
The team of OFSE Growth Hub has therefore sought to address this challenge and devise solutions to reduce the looming expense of decommissioning. One such envisioned answer is a Swiss Army-knife-life universal tool that can interface with virtually all vendor systems, offering advantages in terms of operators only having to deal with one supplier for one set of tools across a field of ageing wells.
“A customer might spend US$15mn on the single set of tools,” remarked Yuill, “but if they needed to go to four OEMs to decommission aging equipment across a field, they’d have to spend more than US$40mn on tools alone.”
She added that using just one set of tools to decommission the various components of any number of wells in a field, is more efficient, than having to use a variety of tools, and can therefore also reduce time spent on the decommissioning by between 30% and 50%.
View the full opinion piece from Baker Hughes, including real life examples of agnostic tooling being supplied, an exploration of how passive well monitoring systems can further help reduce costs and how the company is working to secure the safety of offshore decommissioning projects at: https://www.bakerhughes.com/company/energy-forward/aging-subsea-wells-brim-opportunity
Sapura Energy and Norway-based AF Offshore Decom launched their joint decommissioning venture called Kitar Solutions at OTC Asia 2024.
Sapura's strategic assets and AF Offshore Decom's extensive North Sea decommissioning expertise have resulted in Kitar Solutions, which will undertake decommissioning projects with a customised approach, while prioritising risk mitigation and sustainability.
Sapura Energy defines Kitar as a comprehensive suite of engineering, preparations, removal and disposal (EPRD) services that streamlines the decommissioning process, and reflects the company's dedication to advancing decommissioning techniques and promoting effective waste management and recycling.
Kitar Solutions boasts of unique capabilities from facility isolation and cleaning, removal and disposal of topsides, jackets and subsea structures, to engineering and verification surveys. It has dedicated zones for both ship disposal and offshore structure disposal, where installations can be dismantled, recycled and repurposed.
Pertamina, an Indonesia state-owned oil and gas corporation, has revealed that it is exploring Rig-to-CCS (carbon capture storage) developments with Korea National Oil Company (KNOC).
The collaboration aims to repurpose offshore oil and gas platforms into CCS facilities and is being pursued through a joint study agreement. This was signed by Nicke Widyawati, President Director of Pertamina, and Dong Sub Kim, President & CEO of KNOC, in a bid to reduce emission and support net zero commitments.
“I highly appreciate this collaboration. Apart from enriching CCS studies, this collaboration also helps address Indonesia's challenges regarding abandonment and site restoration (ASR) of offshore platforms,” remarked Widyawati.
“The cost of conventional ASR or decommissioning is extremely high, necessitating an alternative ASR solution, especially reutilisation, in order to ensure the gradual and efficient implementation of ASR for these offshore platforms.”
Oki Muraza, the Senior Vice President of Research and Technology Innovation of Pertamina, added, “This collaboration could be extended to the development of Rig-to-Wind Farm, Rig-to-Fish-Farm, and Rig-to-LNG Terminal to transport natural gas to locations where energy facilities are yet to be established.”
Many companies are seeking to address the decommissioning challenge which is increasing in urgency. Click here to discover Offshore Network's unique report on the global decommissioning outlook.
Offshore Network’s newly released Global Offshore Decommissioning & Abandonment Report tracks the growing need for end-of-life activities that is becoming an increasingly pertinent issue across the world.
While decommissioning has its roots as far back as the 1960’s, it was only towards the end of the century, under mounting environmental sentiment, that national bodies and the community began engaging with the issue more acutely and discerning what this will mean for the industry’s future. Time and resources dedicated here have drawn the curtains further back, and the more that is revealed, the more daunting the decommissioning task has become.
In 2021, IHS Markit predicted that global offshore decommissioning spending could reach around US$100bn between 2021 and 2030, a staggering 200% increase compared to the previous ten-year period. In light of this, the information services provider asked whether the world was entering “a decade of offshore decommissioning” as it reacted to the data that suggested nearly 2,800 fixed platforms and 160 floating platforms could be decommissioned in that period, alongside more than 18,500 wellheads, 2,850 subsea trees and 80,000 km of offshore pipelines and umbilicals. Looking further ahead, the Energy Industries Council further predicted that this cost of decommissioning would continue to rise beyond that, hitting the US$200bn figure within the next 20 years.
Offshore Network’s unique report charts the rise of the decommissioning market across the globe, providing analysis on this within each of the key offshore oil and gas regions from the more mature regions of the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico, to those that are less far along in this journey such as West Africa.
Global well integrity specialist Coretrax is planning for future growth following a slew of recent project wins, with company headcounts rising by 20% to 300 people over the last year.
The business has expanded operational bases in the US, Middle East, and Southeast Asia, with further growth in the pipeline for the Asia Pacific region with the first senior appointments in Australia. The company expects to recruit a further 50 people this year to meet the demand of projects.
Coretrax has also supported carbon capture (CCS) and geothermal campaigns, seeing significant potential to bring its technological expertise to the lower carbon sector.
John Fraser, CEO of Coretrax, said, “We have experienced growth across our operations and are currently running live projects on 250 rigs in the Middle East, with support provided from our teams in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Dubai.
“In the US, our unique expandable technology is being used to bring wells well on stream, delivering cost savings and efficiencies with international orders mounting up for this technology that can add value in one run.
“In the UK, the majority of our work is in wellbore clean up and plugging and abandonment as we help operators to safely decommission their assets.”
Coretrax continues to invest in research and developments, and currently bolsters more than 50 technologies across its four product lines. With a strong engineering focus, the company brings together a range of solutions into an integrated package to provide a full well lifecycle solution.
International well plug and abandonment specialists, Well-Safe Solutions, are expanding into the Asia Pacific region with the appointment of Massimo Delia as General Manager of the newly created Well-Safe Solutions Pty Ltd.
Based in Perth, Australia, Massimo joins the company with more than 20 years of subsea commercial and engineering experience.
Commenting on his appointment, Massimo said, “I have watched Well-Safe Solutions go from strength to strength in Europe, with the growth of its Subsurface and Well Engineering team capabilities and the mobilisation of all three well plug and abandonment assets for the first time in the company’s history being just some of the recent highlights.
“I am eager to play my part in the next chapter of the company’s growth and look forward to collaborating with my colleagues, clients and stakeholders in the UK and Australia.”
Phil Milton, Chief Executive Officer of Well-Safe Solutions, said, “Working in tandem with the wider Well-Safe Solutions team, Massimo will be instrumental in leveraging our capabilities and track record to partner with operations and stakeholders throughout Australia and Asia.
“We’re looking forward to undertaking offshore and onshore well decommissioning projects with the input of the highly experiences engineering sector and supply chain already present within the region.”
In the initial assessment of Australia’s offshore oil and gas decommissioning liabilities, the Centre of Decommissioning Australia (CODA) has identified more than US$50bn worth of work ahead – with well P&A and pipeline removal the majority of the estimated spend. This includes the abandonment of more than 1,000 offshore wells, in addition to a significant onshore market.
With more than 400 wells worldwide featuring Well-Safe Solutions’ engineering expertise and more than 70 wells either decommissioned or to be decommissioned by the business in the North Sea alone, the company is well-placed to deliver on its mission to provide safe, efficient and collaborative well plug and abandonment operations in the Asia Pacific region.
While the oil and gas industry in Southeast Asia is looking ahead to an impressive array of merger and acquisition deals, the region cannot forget its ever-growing decommissioning and abandonment (D&A) liabilities. Approximately 200 offshore fields in Southeast Asia, comprising more than 1,500 platforms and 7,000 plus wells, are likely to stop producing by 2030.
Sustainable D&A practices now stand more relevant than ever as a recently released IEA report predicts that high prices and security of supply concerns highlighted by the global energy crisis is hastening the shift towards cleaner energy technologies. Circumstances have led analysts from Goldman Sachs to revise its bullish prediction of the Brent crude price hitting US$100 by mid-2023 to finish as low as US$86 this year. Such waning confidence in the future oil price and demand in the face of the growing energy transition especially calls for serious consideration of end-of-life responsibilities by operators.
To navigate the elaborate and often complicated process of D&A, operators must follow clear regulatory regime, which is the only way to understand their liabilities. To establish an effective regulatory framework, it may help Southeast Asia to play catch-up with foolproof guidelines and processes already in place elsewhere, such as the UK or the Gulf of Mexico. Chevron and Shell are currently collaborating with Thai and Bruneian regulators respectively through knowledge transfer and pilot project initiatives.
While Southeast Asia is following international conventions such as the International Maritime Organisation Guidelines (IMO) and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), it has also adopted new clauses along with these to make them region-specific. For example, the area of ‘pipelines’ is an addition by the ASEAN Council of Petroleum – otherwise absent in the global frameworks – to allow export pipelines to be left in situ, provided that there is no history of pipeline spanning, or movement of the seabed.
A cheap alternative to the costly affair of decommissioning, the Rigs to Reefs programme has the potential to benefit marine life as well. The rig-to-reef way of D&A can spare companies a significant capital. In the Asia-Pacific region, an average 6,000-ton oil platform will cost approximately US$35mn to completely remove, notes an Asia-focused research website. However, D&A via the rigs-to-reefs approach would cut that amount in half, with an average saving of up to nearly US$22mn per platform decommissioned, according to decommissioning expert Brian G Twomey.
InterMoor, a brand in Acteon’s engineering, moorings and foundations division, has been awarded a decommissioning contract by Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production (CTEP).
Following InterMoor’s completion of Phase 1 decommissioning work in 2021 in the Gulf of Thailand, CTEP has extended InterMoor’s field decommissioning contract by adding more packages for the disconnection and removal of pipelines.
InterMoor’s scope of work after the extension includes project management engineering, procurement and offshore execution; disconnection and removal of pipelines; disconnection and removal of single point mooring (SPM) and associated subsea infrastructure; and topside modifications work.
InterMoor will use cutting tools provided by its sister company, Claxton. Aquatic will provide subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines (SURF) recovery equipment and UTEC plans to provide the survey spread.
The Asia Pacific oil and gas industry, making use of a period of relative oil price stability and seemingly maintained future demand, is increasingly looking to ramp up production rates which, in light of a rapidly approaching decommissioning wave, is leading to a thriving oilfield services market.
A period of stability is something the oil and gas industry has been yearning for ever since the outbreak of Covid-19 which, in the first quarter of 2020, burst onto the global arena in a devastating manner. But after a period of volatility driven by the pandemic and geopolitical developments in eastern Europe, the oil price has finally stabilised, settling at around US$80 per barrel across most benchmarks. From here, commentators such as Goldman Sachs and Fitch Ratings have predicted prices to maintain stable across 2023 and even hit US$100 by the end of the year.
One of the reasons for this security is a growth in oil demand, driven primarily by the re-opening of China at the start of the year. While the incessant rise of renewables has caused many to doubt the future prospects of fossil fuels as the world strives to its collective net zero ambition, according to OPEC’s 2022 World Oil Outlook 2045 energy demand will increase from 285.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (mboe/d) in 2021 to 351 mboe/d in 2045 at an increase of 23%. To meet this, the report suggests renewables will not be sufficient by themselves and oil and gas must continue to be exploited to meet the world’s needs. In view of this, it forecasts that by 2045, oil could retain a 29% share in the energy mix and gas would meet 24% of it. This translates to oil demand rising to 109.8mb/d in 2045 – in this scenario it must also be remembered that the expansion of production rates must also come alongside an extra 5 mb/d being added every year just to maintain current production rates, given an average industry decline rate of around 5%.
This is translating to a solid future for the global oil and gas industry and, in light of this, the Asia Pacific community is looking to increase its production rates – especially as the region consumes 35% of the world’s oil while supplying just 8% of its production. To do so, it is turning to its reliable tool of drilling but also on less-utilised methods such as well intervention. The latter is also being spurred by the region’s offshore oil well stock moving ever-closer to end-of-life with, according to a Wood Mackenzie 2018 report, more than 380 fields expected to cease production in the next decade.
Decom Engineering (Decom) has kicked of the new year with numerous project wins and work scopes valued in excess of seven figures.
The decommissioning specialist has secured new projects in Africa, Norway, Thailand and Singapore, while strengthening existing ties in Malaysia.
The UK-based company will mobilise chop saws and supporting crews in Q1 2023 to support campaigns in the Gulf of Thailand, and over in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Decom will provide a C1-24 chop saw with hot slab functionality to assist in the recovery of a production jumper in depths of up to 1,000 m. The acquisition of this work scope came about after Decom was able to successfully prove its technology could success where others had failed.
In Norway, the company will provide support through a tier 1 contractor to a major operator during the summer campaign to cut concrete coated pipelines with its new C1-46 chop saw.
Decom Engineering Managing Director, Sean Conway, commented, “It is an encouraging start to the year to have an array of international work on the books, and it confirms that out chop saws and operational cutting expertise is seen as an integral component of complex subsea asset recovery and decommissioning projects.
“Our strategy is to continue investing in expanding the capabilities of our chop saws to meet the technical challenges faced by clients, and we are in the process of developing a larger chop saw, capable of cutting piping infrastructure up to 46” in diameter.”
T7 Global Berhad, an energy solutions provider, has secured two contracts worth approximately RM100mn (around US$23mn) from PTTEP Group of Companies and Hibiscus Oil & Gas Malaysia Limited.
The work with PTTEP includes the provision of headhunting and recruitment services while the second letter of award, from Hibiscus, is for the provision of facilities decommissioning services for South Angsi Alpha.
T7 Global Group Chief Executive Officer, Tan Kay Zhuin, commented, “The Hibiscus award marks an important milestone for the Company to execute offshore facility decommissioning projects of such scale. There is initiative for rig-to-reef by converting the structures into artificial reef to enhance the marine habitat at the intended location. We see this as a sustainable approach for oil & gas operators moving forward which can contribute to their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) agenda. Over the next few years, we will be on the lookout for more ESG related projects in the region.”
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