Europe

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

Argeo Robotics AS, a fully owned subsidiary of Argeo AS which develops robotic and digital solutions for the ocean space, has been granted a patent from the Norwegian Industrial Patent Office for a subsea electromagnetic remote-sensing system.

The company has developed a portfolio of electromagnetic source and receiver systems for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), Underwater Intervention Drones (UID) and ROVs. This patent protects Argeo’s exclusive services with the products Argeo Whisper and Argeo Discover.

Argeo Whisper is an AUV and ROV system developed for localising and tracking buried pipelines as well as detecting buried objects in a decommissioning survey. It can also be used for detecting unexploded ordnances.

Argeo Discover is an application or detecting, delineating, and characterising deep sea mineral deposits or other conductive objects below the seafloor utilising an electromagnetic source integrated in an AUV or ROV.

The company has developed an electromagnetic source that is designed to operate down to 6,000 m water depth. This technology enables ultra-high resolution characterisation of minerals that has previously not been possible. With Argeo Discover added to Argeo’s AUV and ROV sensor portfolio, Argeo is in a position to provide effective ultra-high resolution data acquisition for both larger regional and detailed local exploration over large areas with deposits utilising its fleet its AUVs rated to 6,000 m water depth.

Thorbjørn Rekdal, CTO in Argeo, commented, “We are very pleased with the electromagnetic source and sensor technologies that are developed by Argeo Robotics, and protecting our inventions is something we consider of utmost importance.”

The project for Argeo Searcher and both of the SeaRaptors is scheduled to commence directly after completing the vessel conversion project in January 2023 with a duration of 3-4 weeks and an estimated completion in February. The project has good possibility for extension further into Q1 2023.

The company will provide high resolution environmental and potential marine mineral resource assessment in addition to an advanced dual-AUV operation. Argeo will retain show and marketing rights for the data and present the results using its digital visualisation platform, Argeo SCOPE.

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

The recycling operation of Curlew, an FPSO vessel, has started in Vats, Rogaland, this week, with the 235 m-long ship loaded-in by a float-over and subsequent site move operation.

The vessel will now be cleaned, dismantled and at least 97% of it will be recycled. 

This is the first time this type of vessel has been recycled in Norway. The production vessel, Curlew, was operated by Shell UK, and produced oil and gas from the Curlew field in the UK sector in the North Sea. The chosen decommissioning solution known as a float-over-float-in operation has never been used on such a large scale anywhere in the world. The contract was awarded to AF Offshore Decom through competitive tendering, and includes engineering, preparatory work, dismantling and recycling.

Dismantling and recycling of offshore installations and ships is an important part of the green transition. Here, Norwegian industry and engineering expertise have developed solutions that are at the forefront of the industry. This provides tangible evidence of the circular economy given nearly 97% of the ship can be used as raw materials in new production, with steel being used as rebar in new buildings, and all hazardous waste is taken out of the system and disposed of in a responsible manner.

“This is a very complex logistics project with significant marine operations. We are proud that we can carry out such complicated operations in a safe and environmentally sound manner," said Lars Myhre Hjelmeset, Executive Vice President for Offshore in AF Gruppen.

The production vessel Curlew has been in operation in the UK sector of the North Sea and was transported to the facility at AF Environmental Base Vats in Rogaland in 2020. The preparations on the FPSO have been ongoing at AF Environmental Base for some time, and the float-over-float-in-operation was completed this week. Now the ship has been transported ashore in the largest single offloading of a production vessel that has been carried out in this way. The hull is now safely located on the quayside at AF Environmental Base Vats, ready for cleaning, dismantling and final recycling. These activities will start immediately and continue throughout 2023.

“We have considerable experience in recovering offshore installations and floating production vessels is another area where our expertise and approach is both relevant and internationally recognised. Complex operations like this show that Norwegian offshore and engineering expertise helps set the standard for safe and environmentally sound solutions," commented Hjelmeset.

• Region: North Sea
• Date: Nov, 2022

With an ever-increasing demand and healthy oil price appearing to reach relative stability, much of the oil and gas industry has thrived across 2022, despite the tumultuous geopolitical environment threatening to upset Covid-19 recovery efforts.

As supply from Russia continues to reduce, European countries are preparing to fill the gap by boosting production while balancing their environmental commitments. To help walk this tightrope, there are calls for operators in the North Sea to invest more into offshore well intervention an opportunity which could see it emerge as a cornerstone of the North Sea industry.

With more capital available for spending on such activities and a plethora of shut-ins, experts have highlighted how the industry is also presented with a blank canvas in the North Sea for testing new technologies. The eventual implementation of these could really help tip the balance in the risk versus reward scale and take down a potential barrier preventing future interventions.

While stimulating production is the most pressing concern at this time, increasingly influential regulators are ensuring that the decommissioning wave on the horizon is not removed from gaze. As climate concerns continue to mount and the ageing region advances in its maturity, there is growing pressure for the industry to expand their attention on end of life activity. This is work that will not simply disappear and, with soaring profits rolling in from high demand and healthy oil price, there are calls for operators to take advantage of this boom and get ahead of their liabilities – a trend which could open up the market for companies offering project management, engineering analysis, data collection, downhole tools, etc within this workscope.

Download the full, free-to-read report on these trends and more here.

• Region: All
• Date: Oct, 2022

20 winners have been selected over seven categories for the Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC) UK£10mn funding competition.

The NZTC launched its Open Innovation Programme in March, 2022, aimed at developing tech in the hope of starting initiatives which will reduce offshore emissions, accelerate clean energy production and deliver on the UK’s net zero ambition.

Of the 154 applicants for the first UK£8mn trache, 20 have been selected, the majority of which reside in Scotland, for the second round which will be announced later in the year for the remaining funding.

The competition winners were selected over seven categories: carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), hydrogen and clean fuels, renewables and energy storage, zero emissions power, venting and flaring, integrity management and last life and decommissioning.

Highlighting some of the winners, Copsys has designed an ‘intelligent digital skin’ paint-based technology which can detect corrosion. Innovatium has designed a Liquid Air Battery which can store excess renewable power and high-density pressurised liquid air, which can further be converted into electrical power. Sulmara Subsea won with an uncrewed drone system which will significantly reduce the size of vessel needed for offshore survey. Enertechnos has created a specialised cable designed to electrify North Sea oil and gas installations, and Heriot-Watt Univeristy has designed a new tool to measure the probability of CO2 leaks from wells.

“There have been some really exciting technologies come through in the programme – each and every one of them has real potential. They went through a robust screening in the indutsy to see how viable they were – and if we could have we would have supported more,” said Head of Emissions at the NTZC, Rebecca Allison.

Each project has at least one industry sponsor and an NTZC project manager.

• Region: North Sea
• Date: Oct, 2022

Dana Petroleum has selected leading service provider, Petrofac, to provide well management services for all of its UK North Sea operated assets.

The two-year contract, which will include providing services to both the Triton FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) and the Western Isles FPSO vessels, continues on the back of an existing five-year relationship between the two companies. Petrofac previously provided outsourced well engineering services to Dana’s 11 operated and 18 non-operated Licenses in the UK North Sea.

The contract includes full life cycle well engineering, from initial concept through detailed design and planning, supporting well construction, intervention, and decommissioning activities. The contract is valued at approximately US$60mn.

“I’m proud of the value we have been delivering to Dana for the last five years, but there is no better validation of our delivery than our customers decision to retain our services. We look forward to supporting their delivery of value for their shareholders through continued safe, reliable and efficient operations,” said Nick Shorten, Chief Operating Officer, Petrofac’s Asset Solutions.

Chief Operating Officer at Dana Petroleum, Andy Duncanson, said, “We are really pleased to award this new contract to Petrofac. Dana is committed to doing all we can to support the supply chain and nurture the specialist skills that are so important for both our business and the wider sector.”

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

Pioneering Spirit, the world’s largest construction vessel, has removed the West Alpha and East Alpha structures from the North Sea’s Tyra field and will deliver them for recycling at Frederikshavn, Denmark.

The removal of the jackets concludes Allseas involvement in the Tyra Redevelopment Project. In total, Pioneering Spirit has removed more than 35,000 tonnes of offshore facilities from the field. The redeveloped Tyra II will continue the production of natural gas with 30% less CO2 emissions contributing to the energy security for Denmark and Europe.

2022 saw a record year for Pioneering Spirit. The vessel has lifted and transported approximately 115,000 tonnes of new and decommissioned facilities for the offshore energy industry.

Allseas’ role in the project covered engineering, preparation, removal and transportation to specialist dismantling yards of the complete East Alpha and West Alpha platforms, flare jackets, IPF and monopole.

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

Allseas has been awarded a major decommissioning contract by TAQA UK for the removal and disposal of multiple northern North Sea facilities.

The engineering, preparation, removal, and disposal (EPRD) contract comprises TAQA’s Eider Alpha, Tern Alpha, North Cormorant and Cormorant Alpha platforms. The combined weight of the topsides and jackets to be removed is around 114,000 tonnes, making this the largest single offshore UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) decommissioning contract scope to date.

Allseas’ task is to remove four platform topsides, three steel supporting jackets and transport them to a suitable onshore yard facility for dismantling. It is hoped that at least 95% of the materials from the facilities will be reused or recycled.

The platforms are located close to each other, approximately 100 kilometres north-east of Shetland, in water depths ranging from 150 to 167 metres.

All structures will be lifted and removed to shore as single units using Allseas’ heavy lift vessel Pioneering Spirit.

Platform removals are planned post 2025.

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

Independent drilling contractors, Stena Drilling, has introduced a new well delivery and decommissioning service, Stena Wells, with the aim of combining the renowned drilling contractors with an experienced team of well delivery experts with promises of consistently providing their clients with safe, cost-effective and predictable outcomes.

The vision laid out by the company is to join forces with a pre-constructed team to deliver and execute all client expectations. Previously, operators will source external well construction and decommissioning activities, with the team having to familiarise themselves with the rig and the internal operations. By having a team already formed with the predetermined understanding of how operations are delivered, Stena Wells wants to remove that learning curve to enable a focused approach to operations.

In a video posted on their LinkedIn, director of Stena Wells, Dillan Perras, said, “Stena Wells comprises of two main elements; these are the building blocks of what we are trying to do. The first building block is Stena Drilling, a well renowned, international drilling contractor. The second part of the offering is the Stena Wells engineering team that brings a wealth of experience, knowledge, capabilities and competence. Stena Wells will provide the planning, the permitting, engineering, notification, construction or decommissioning of any well stock.”

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

Spirit Energy Production (UK) ltd. has engaged ABL Group to provide marine warranty survey (MWS) and marine consultancy services for the operator’s decommissioning portfolio in the southern North Sea and the Irish Sea.

Spirit Energy has contracted ABL on a three-year contract (with three optional one-year extensions) to provide the marine warranty scope for the operator’s decommissioning campaigns.

ABL, which has provided a wide range of marine and engineering services for decommissioning operations in some of the world’s most complex offshore structures, will provide MWS services for decommissioning operations involving the removal of topside, and jackets for the following three offshore oil and gas platforms: Audrey A & B, and Ensign.

Ashley Perrett, Engineering Manager, ABL Aberdeen, commented, “ABL has considerable experience in supporting clients with the safe, efficient and optimised decommissioning of their oil and gas assets. Our long history in the sector, combined with our participation in a number of industry firsts within decommissioning, gives us unique insight into the range of challenges which can impact these complex marine operations.”

ABL’s MWS scope of work includes technical document and procedural review, on-site attendance and marine consultancy support for offshore operations during the campaign. Suitability surveying of the proposed fleet for the campaign is also part of the scope.