Offshore staff
ABERDEEN, UK -- Offshore Installation Services (OIS) has completed a suspended well abandonment campaign in the UK North Sea for four operators.
A total of six wells were abandoned, including three for Nexen and one each for Dana Petroleum, Premier Oil, and a fourth operator.
OIS planned and organized all aspects of the six well abandonments, from the initial approvals process, contracting strategy, development of detailed procedures, procurement, the appointment of specialist service providers, and logistics, through to recycling and disposal of the recovered wellheads.
The company conducted its campaign from the DP-2 light construction vessel M/V Island Valiant, which undertook two trips between July 20 and Aug. 16.
During the first trip, OIS deployed its proprietary suspended well abandonment tool (SWAT) through the vessel’s moonpool for light intervention work on the wells, essentially setting cement plugs across all casing annuli in accordance with North Sea legislative requirements.
OIS says the program for Premier’s well was unusual as the production tree was still in place following the well’s earlier suspension.
Four of the suspended wells were completely P&A’d within 10 days. A second trip had to be made to sever the wellheads beneath the seabed, and in the case of the Premier Oil well to remove the tree.
Vic Morrell, president of OIS, said, “Multi-operator abandonment campaigns provide significant cost savings for the individual operators who share the mobilization and project management costs – though serious attention needs to be paid to the various overlapping contracts with each of the operators, notably in terms of the reasonable division of cost and risk.”
09/02/2010
