Europe

• 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.

• Region: Mediterranean
• Topics: Integrity
• Date: Aug, 2022

At the OWI MED 2022 conferenee, Abdullah Moustafa Mohamed Saad, Senior Production Technologist, Cheiron/Bapetco, will explain how changes in conditions lead to low and zero coat production gains.

The conference will be held in Athens, Greece, on 20 September 2022. The hottest talking points within the Mediterranean and North Africa region, along with the latest well intervention intelligence from the region will be discussed at the event.

Abdullah will help the audience learn about closed in gas wells in heterogeneous reservoirs and explore how changes in stimulation cost unlocks more economic potential.

Through his presentation, he will make participants analyse artificial lift optimisation and cost changes and explain them the impact of reduced back pressures from years of production loss, that could help in intermittent operations.

Visitors at the event can explore well stimulation methods and effective production enhancement strategies to increase well stock value in mature wells.

Reach out to the details below:
Joseph Watson
Project Manager
T: +44 (0) 20 3409 5720
e: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

• Region: Mediterranean
• Date: Aug, 2022

OWI MED 2022 is back as a live event after last year’s inaugural virtual launch. The conference will be held in Athens, Greece, on 20 September 2022. The hottest talking points within the Mediterranean and North Africa region, along with the latest well intervention intelligence from the region will be discussed at the event.

Eman Sayed Shahin, Performance Lead and Senior Petroleum Engineer from Dragon Oil, will be presenting a case study on the success of advanced reservoir management via an integration between real-time monitoring system and classical reservoir model, in the Gulf of Suez.

She will review how the J-100 well was equipped with a real-time automation system, which helped detect problems in the well and reduce delays in receiving data from periodic visits to the well.

Eman will explore how this integrated work-flow highlights the integration between real time remote monitoring systems in offshore fields and how this can add considerable benefits to the business.

Reach out to the details below:
Joseph Watson
Project Manager
T: +44 (0) 20 3409 5720
e: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

• Region: North Sea
• Date: Aug, 2022

Well-Safe has awarded a contract to Trendsetter Engineering for the utilisation of the Trident Intervention System and technical services for abandonments in the UK, North Sea.

The system will be deployed from the Well-Safe Guardian rig to conduct a multi-well P&A campaign for an estimated 320 day duration.

Trendsetter owns and operates five 15,000 psi subsea intervention systems for hydraulic, riserless light well and intervention riser-based operations. Their flagship intervention system, TRIDENT, utilises advanced technologies to provide high-spec capability in a lightweight and modular package, furthering Trendsetter’s goal of bringing innovation to subsea intervention.

Mike Cargol, Vice President of Rentals & Services for Trendsetter Engineering, commented, “We are excited to work with Well-Safe to bring TRIDENT to the North Sea for plug and abandonment operations. We look forward to providing our value-added intervention services and are eager to identify additional opportunities for collaboration for our two companies.”

Neil Ferguson, Operations Director at Well-Safe Solutions, added, “Trendsetter is an ambitious partner with a strong track record of technical delivery around the world. Adding this capability to the Well-Safe Guardian unlocks considerable operational improvements and time savings for our clients during well intervention operations.”

• Region: Mediterranean
• Date: Aug, 2022

At the OWI MED 2022, being held in Athens, Greece on 20 September, Matthew Vick, Senior Subsea Wells Engineer from bp will speak about their Gulf of Mexico riserless intervention campaign.

Attendees will have the exclusive opportunity to access a case study from bp on their ongoing riserless Intervention Campaign in the Gulf of Mexico.

Vick will review the broad scope of well access equipment that can be utilised from a single vessel, including mechanical wireline, hydraulic via TRT, hydraulic via well service jumper hose and hydraulic via stimulation choke insert.

During the talk, he will explore an overview of the planning and execution of the campaign including well access, well integrity restoration, well surveillance, well stimulation and protection, and fishing.

OWI MED allows attendees to access new regulations and innovative LWI technologies to develop a best practice intervention strategy for production, integrity and P&A projects.

Reach out to the details below:
Joseph Watson
Project Manager
T: +44 (0) 20 3409 5720
e: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

• Region: Mediterranean
• Date: Aug, 2022

Yerasimos Angelis, Managing Director of GA R&D Ltd., will be presenting a case study at the OWI MED 2022, which will take place in Athens, Greece on 20 September 2022. 

He will speak about the highlights from over 300 U-line runs where this market-leading technology has reduced the cost and carbon impact of well intervention operations across the globe, including the North Sea.

The MD will explore U-line technology and how it can reduce cost and carbon impact of well-intervention. Along with demonstrating how the technology has improved the scope of well interventions that operators can achieve within budgets, he will also analyse how the services run on; slickline, e-line and fiber deployment.

The hottest talking points within the Mediterranean and North Africa region, along with the latest well intervention intelligence from the region will be discussed at the event.

Reach out to the details below:
Joseph Watson
Project Manager
T: +44 (0) 20 3409 5720
e: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

• Region: North Sea
• Date: Aug, 2022

Paradigm’s e-Winch Technology, used by Archer aboard the Seafarer vessel in Norway, has received praises for playing an important part in significantly increasing well intervention efficiency while reducing CO₂ emissions.

In 2020, Paradigm Technology Services B.V, a leader in oilfield technologies, delivered four NORSOK e-Winch units to Deepwell AS (now Archer AS) of Norway, for continuous operations aboard the Seafarer vessel.

Step changes in efficiency, performance and safety were core principles throughout the design and engineering phase, with the four double-drum units containing a wide range of Paradigm’s existing proprietary solutions as well as some new designs. Features such as dynamic breaking and constant speed control (taken from a suite of advanced winch control software options) have added significantly to the safety of vessel-based intervention operations, whilst the new ‘hands-off’ drum exchange system enable drums to be changed out safely without anyone ever being in the line of fire.

A wide range of operations have been performed with the e-Winch units, including plug and perforation, pre-P&A activities (plug setting, tubing punching/cutting), zonal isolations, production logging, injection logging, DHSV replacements, GLV changeouts and tubing/screen punching. Over the past year, the success of the whole Seafarer vessel has been notable and has been attracting industry attention having performed work on a large number of subsea wells within a short time frame.

The control options afforded by the e-Winch technology has helped significantly with the operational performance, with four winch control locations available to the team; a local hand-held remote control, a local deck mounted Zone 1 panel, a full control chair system with control panel with camera feedback situated in the vessel’s control room, and full remote operation from shore (or indeed anywhere worldwide).

William Ash, Managing Director of Paradigm Technology Services, said, “We are incredibly proud to be playing a small part in the success of the incredible Seafarer vessel. To fit such an amount of winch functionality into the restricted footprint was indeed a challenge, but with the great collaboration of all involved it has resulted in an excellent technical solution which is also helping drive down CO₂ emissions with the all-electric e-Winch technology”.

Bendt Nybøe, Technical Lead Archer Husoy, added, “Due to the flexible set up, the easy rig up, the special safe drum change out systems, the advanced winch control software, the winches are performing even better and easier than we predicted.”

• Region: Mediterranean
• Topics: Integrity
• Date: July, 2022

OWI MED 2022 is back as a live event after last year’s inaugural virtual launch. The conference will be held in Athens, Greece, on 20 September 2022. The hottest talking points within the Mediterranean and North Africa region, along with the latest well intervention intelligence from the region will be discussed at the event.

One of the key discussions at the conference will be learning how implementing new digital systems can result in more cost-effective and efficient well intervention and integrity processes. Operators can explore preventative maintenance efforts which can mitigate potential problems such as corrosion.

Contributing to this topic, will be Mustafa Adel Amer, well integrity specialist from BAPETCO. He will throw light on well integrity management, right from a production obstacle to a production booster. Mustafa will review surface-controlled subsurface safety valve (SCSSV) failure statistics in BAPETCO over the period 2010 to 2018. Mustafa will also explain the assessment of risk of failing in SCSSV and analyse wells criteria to define safe well operation with failed SCSSV.

Mustafa will be holding a panel discussion on ‘value of well integrity in reducing methane emissions’. It will seek answers to what the global industry can do or is currently doing to bring down its methane emissions from oil and gas operations. The discourse will explore the role of well integrity to reduce methane emissions for existing wells still in production and analyse whether well integrity has an impact in reducing methane emissions in abandoned wells.

Reach out to the details below:

Joseph Watson
Project Manager
T: +44 (0) 20 3409 5720
e: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

• Region: North Sea
• Date: July, 2022

Seafarer, belonging to vessel-based subsea well construction and intervention services provider AKOFS, has just completed mobilisation for an upcoming three-well campaign as part of the five-year contract for well intervention for Equinor on Nowegian Continental Shelf (NCS).

The work has been performed at the Myklebust Yard in Norway. The OneTeam model implemented by AKOFS, was responsible for completing an intensive mobilisation without any serious safety incidents.

Following successful riser-less interventions since second half of 2020, Equinor and AKOFS have mobilised for a riser-based campaign using coiled tubing through an option in the contract. The AKOFS Seafarer has proven to be an extremely efficient vessel for riser-less interventions year round on NCS, thanks to its unique set-up, size and lay-out as well as the OneTeam model implemented by AKOFS and its operating partners Archer, WellTec and IKM Subsea. Utilising its flexibility, a high pressure work-over riser system has now been mobilised and added to the vessel together with a coiled tubing spread and fluid return treatment system.

The AKOFS Seafarer is now en-route to Equinor-operated fields Norne, Åsgard and Statfjord where well objectives will include scale, sand and debris removals, perforations as well as installation of plugs and screens.

• Region: North Sea
• Date: July, 2022

Serica Energy plc, a British independent upstream oil and gas company with operations centred on the UK North, has provided an operations update outlining its successful well intervention campaign on the Bruce Field.

Serica’s first ever light well intervention vessel (LWIV) campaign, part of the company’s ongoing plan to add value and extend the life of its Bruce facilities, has now concluded without any safety incidents or environmental issues.

The initial well (Bruce M1) was re-entered for the first time since 1998 and, after a successful scale removal and water shutoff, a significant reperforation and new perforation campaign was executed with the well returned to production.

Rates from the well have since increased from around 400 boe/d before intervention to more than 1,800 boe/d.

A similar programme was followed on the second well (Bruce M4) and production rates for the well increased from around 450 boe/d to more than 2,400 boe/d. The results from these two wells are at the upper end of the range of expectations and it is expected that there will be an uplift to independently assessed reserves.

This programme has increased confidence that further uplift can be achieved from future well interventions. Subsequently, plans to perform similar interventions on other Bruce and Keith wells, both subsea and from the platform, are now being accelerated.

Serica’s production performance in 2022 is benefitting from the significant investment in the Rhum R3 well reintervention, the Columbus development project and now the LWIV campaign. Serica’s average net production in July has averaged over 29,150 boe/d and YTD average net production is 26,832 boe/d.

Mitch Flegg, Chief Executive of Serica Energy, commented, "I am delighted with the significant progress that Serica has continued to make during 2022. The impact of the substantial investment programmes undertaken in the last three years has seen increased production levels providing responsibly sourced gas to the UK domestic market, protecting security of supply, and reducing the UK’s reliance on imports as part of the transition to a lower carbon future.

“Serica has no debt, limited decommissioning liabilities and with growing cash reserves is well positioned to continue to invest in further projects and other opportunities to add shareholder value. We have just completed a well intervention campaign on Bruce that has boosted net production by over 3,000 boe/d and provides further evidence of the value in Serica’s assets that can be realised through measured and expert operatorship.

“Operations have also commenced on the North Eigg exploration well with potential for transformational results, while we are now accelerating further well intervention work on Bruce and Keith following the success of the recently completed campaign.”

• Region: All
• Date: July, 2022

To fill a glaring gap in the decommissioning market, Voll Marintek Limited is pioneering the HWU-150 Lean Machine, a dual jack lifting system with key advantages over rigless operations and MDR to deliver significant cost, risk and climate benefits for the industry.

Dennis Vollmar, CEO of Voll Marintek Limited, spoke to Offshore Network to discuss his innovative solution in detail and explained how he identified this opening in the market.

“So we realised there was a gap by knocking on doors really. We had deep interactions with different operators, service providers and contractors and realised there was space for something new.

“It comes down to knowing well conditions. Wells which are coming to the end of their life are usually decades old and in this time the way data is collected has changed. In many cases you don’t even know which revision is the most updated one. In these cases, you have two options: either a customised approach with the deployment of specialised workover units for each subtask or use a rig.”

There are drawbacks to both. In the former, rigless workover units require intensive planning, a detailed knowledge of well integrity and, due to their simplicity and dependency on crane support, they are highly vulnerable to unforeseen events and weather conditions. Rigs on the other hand have more capacity and can simplify the planning and execution phase, but generally have a very high spread cost and carbon footprint.

Voll Marintek, therefore, has developed the Lean Machine, a multipurpose unit to fill the void between these two options.

“The Lean Machine is basically a hybrid solution between a hydraulic workover unit (HWU) and a modular drilling rig (MDR). It combines the main features of a HWU such as fast assembly, lightness, compactness and only requires a small footprint in addition to the benefits of MDR such as drilling, milling, making pipe connections respectively handling different pipe types conventionally and in a safe manner.”

The dual jack lifting system is a modular adaptable multipurpose unit which has the capacity to be upgraded with additional features so that it can be customised for each project and adapted to various interfaces. It consists of different modules designed to cover a specific P&A task which can be stacked on top of each other, extending the previous operational envelope of the complete system (this is called ‘The Happy Meal’). This means it can be upgraded with existing modules at the offshore location to perform sequential tasks instead of mobilising specialised equipment for each subtask or oversized workover rigs.

The operator can choose the options required based on additional costs for each contingency as desired always keeping integrated costs in mind. Importantly, the compactness of the 10 ft container footprint and the lightness of each module (around 12 mt) allow its assembly on a skid beam substructure, heave compensation platform or in a derrick structure of an existing rig.

Explaining the benefits of the system, Vollmar commented, “Cost and risk are the main drivers here. When looking at costs for an operation you want to see exactly the expenditure that will be incurred. Often this is not possible without an extensive preparation phase and even then unforeseen circumstances can occur – which is why rigs are often used.

“What we are doing is to see how we can make the whole process lean. So when you know the potential work scopes you need to perform you can configure the machine to it but, if you have the eventuality of making adaptations (maybe to enhance the operational envelope or even downsize it), you can do that in the field and this is where costs can be significantly reduced.”

Vollmar claimed that the deployment of the modular adaptable unit to tackle challenges within the P&A and decommissioning space will enable the highest potential cost savings available. The faster pipe recovery system alone allows cost savings of US$1mn per well based on a five day execution phase reduction. A global operator has already performed a preliminary total cost analysis in comparison to conventional solutions and identified a cost reduction above 30% for his 100 well campaign.

The high cost of a rig is also mirrored in its high carbon footprint, a somewhat neglected but increasingly pressing concern for the oil and gas industry. HWU’s of course have an advantage here, but poor weather, unforeseen events and the mobilisation of additional equipment to cover all P&A phases can bring down operational efficiency and extends the time duration for a P&A campaign– which is not a problem for the Lean Machine.

Mounting market interest

While still at the start of its journey, the Lean Machine is already attracting attention and suitors which is driving it steadily towards commercialisation.

“The interest in regard to decommissioning is operators who see themselves as delay asset management companies and want to change or look at game changers to reduce the cost of decommissioning,” Vollmar remarked.

“There is also interest beyond decommissioning in production enhancement, for example. As the oil and gas prices increases, we need to look at solutions which reduce costs and simplify the process. Usually, you can collect wells with the same well challenges which only require wireline (for example) for a campaign. Then you need to get a certain threshold to justify the costs to mobilise other equipment. Our approach gives you the advantage as it is multipurpose and has all this included. You can combine now all the different well interventions and justify the cost much easier, which obviously increases the recovery factor of mature fields.” The wide application range simplifies wireline, side track drilling, coiled tubing, ESP runs, conductor pulling, life well interventions or slot recovery operations. On top, the dual jacking system reduces operational time by almost 40% and its offering a hoisting capacity up to 250mt.

For the next steps on its promising journey, Voll Marintek will be conducting a FEED study in September 2022 for which they have been granted a significant grant by Innovate UK. The company will look at different potential well designs which would require P&A and test the technical, commercial and operational feasibility of the Lean Machine against them. Over the course of the study, further engineering and optimisation of the solution will be undertaken.

“We are already receiving interest from operators to manufacture the system and offer it at a rental rate. The idea here would be we manufacture the system, rent it out and then provide maintenance and support when needed,” surmised Vollmar.

While Europe is the launch pad, it is clear that Vollmar has no intention of shackling his ambitions to this region, but instead envisioned the Lean Machine being rolled out across the globe.

“This solution has been developed through niche market research and I looked at a lot which are not currently provided for with a sufficient solution. For example, Australia and Brunei have a lot of wells in four to five metres water depth which you cannot enter with normal jackups. So you need to engineer something which is light, compact and could be added to any vessel of opportunity. But, at the same time, you don’t want to make any large vessel modification. So companies have been looking at lift barges to put a cantilever on but this is not economical or would only be so with a contract for 5-10 years as, again, you need to make modifications. It would be much easier to have something light and compact which could be put on top of the wellheads and even deployed by a jacking barge (or between two).”

“In Asia and Africa, people did not really think about workovers and so you often find wells with a production facility incredibly close. Workover equipment is only feasible if you look really deeply into interfaces and have the time and resources to do it. The Lean Machine could really help here and can be easily adapted depending on how much space is available at location.”

While it was clear that Vollmar is very much ready to take on the world with the Lean Machine, for now it is time to build the foundations. After the start of the FEED study, the next steps for Voll Marintek will be building alliances, manufacturing and testing and field trials before commercialisation – currently targeted in 2024/25. Without doubt, however, there will be many in the industry following this progression with great interest.

• Region: All
• Date: June, 2022

Osbit, an offshore technology company, has delivered a new intervention tower system to FTAI Ocean which comprises 1,300 tonnes of equipment and stands at 40 metres tall.

The tower will enable riser and riserless based well intervention activities in water depths of up to 1,500 metres and integrates a series of innovations derived from the company’s extensive experience in developing well intervention and offshore handling equipment.

The tower’s vertical racking system reduces the need for well centre access, while maximising deck space with its small footprint. An active and passive heave compensated platform supports coil tubing, slickline and e-line operations, while safe personnel access is facilitated via an integrated walk to work system.

For riserless operations, the system has four guide wires and two pod wires integrated with the existing vessel crane which provides up to 250 tonne Safe Working Load (SWL) active heave compensation. The system’s deck skidding system minimises the need for crane lifts, increases the operating window, and enables equipment to be directly loaded into the well centre.

The tower was fabricated and assembled at Wilton Engineering Services in Teesside, UK.

Osbit Director Steve Binney, commented, “Completing this project is a huge achievement for Osbit, and we have worked extremely hard to deliver our largest and most technologically complex engineering system yet. As a team, we have overcome many obstacles to reach this important milestone, which shows not only our capability, but that of North East England, and our fantastic supply chain."

Project Director, Steve Bedford, added, “The delivery of this project is Osbit’s biggest milestone yet and is testament to the unbelievable efforts of the whole Osbit team, most of whom have made a direct contribution towards making this happen. This tower system is a prime example of how we work from first principles, combining our proven technology modules with fresh thinking to produce exciting engineering systems for the offshore world.

"It has also been rewarding to watch our team grow and develop as they supported this project’s development, and we are already applying this learning on to our latest projects and concepts for the offshore wind market. With the build complete, we are looking forward to providing further support to FTAI Ocean now that preparations are underway for transportation to Singapore.”