Offshore staff
FORNEBU, Norway – Aker Solutions has developed a modified workover system that is said to enable faster and more cost-effective planned interventions.
The concept will first be applied on Equinor’s Visund field in the North Sea.
Workover systems enable safe well access for subsea installation and completion, diagnostics, maintenance, repairs, enhanced production, and plugging and abandonment.
The operational concept entails delivering the company’s multiWOS system by vessel and landing it on either a subsea platform or a well. The vessel then extracts, and the rig picks up the stack and starts the intervention campaign.
The mobilization of the workover system can be executed well in advance of the intervention activities, hence the operator will have more flexibility both before and after operations, as the system can be parked subsea.
According to the company, the main advantage with this concept compared to the more traditional approach is that the system is kept subsea and not taken onboard the rig.
Other advantages include:
- Use of existing multiWOS system
- Modification and re-use of existing components
- Reduced work in ‘red zone’
- Greatly reduced skidding, handling, and lifting on the rig
- Safe and efficient operations.
“This project has been a joint collaboration between Equinor and Aker Solutions from the start. The new intervention concept is faster, more cost effective and safer than traditional workover systems,” said Andreas Kraabøl, VP Subsea Lifecycle Services, Norway.
The system and associated equipment will be modified and delivered in the spring of 2021 to perform intervention operations on Visund.
Located in a water depth of 335 m (1,099 ft), the Visund field includes 23 Aker Solutions subsea trees. Interventions will play an increasingly important role operationally in the future for Visund to increase oil recovery, the company said.
06//17/2020
