Image credit: Tomasz Wyszołmirski

UKCS decommissioning activity hits new high

The number of contractors expecting to carry out decommissioning on the UK Continental Shelf over the next three to five years has hiked to 79%, up from 55% in 2012, according to the 22nd Oil and Gas Survey, carried out by Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce and University of Strathclyde.

Only 24% of firms already involved in decommissioning foresaw a decline in the value of this work, while 19% said they did not expect to undertake any decommissioning.

The survey, conducted twice a year, also found that more than 80% of contractors already involved in decommissioning have seen an increase in their activity in the past 12 months.

“This is a clear signal that new opportunities exist in this area and that companies will benefit from decommissioning,” Robert Collier, the Chief Executive of the Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, said.

By contrast the poll found that the confidence of contractors working on upstream activities on the UKCS has fallen sharply in the past year, with 76% of contractors reporting they were less confident about their activity levels whereas only 7% were more confident.

This is the lowest level of confidence recorded since the survey began in 2004, and reflects a sudden increase in pessimism compared with a survey conducted in 2014, when the balance recorded was –31%.

Regarding expectations for the next year, 9% of contractors said they expected upstream demand to strengthen compared with 63% who thought it would weaken. This net balance of –54% is down from –25% this time last year.

Technip to carry out “all in one” job for Chevron in Gulf of Mexico

French contractor Technip has been awarded a lump-sum contract by Chevron North America Exploration and Production to dismantle the infrastructure of a deepwater field in the Gulf of Mexico and replace it with a floating production system.

The field is located in Mississippi Canyon, about 2,000 meters below the surface.

The project will include removing a collector, jumpers and flexible pipe connection, and installing 8.8km of riser tubing, flowlines, a gas-lift umbilical, a new manifold and seven jumpers.

The work will be overseen by Technip's operations center in Houston. The new flowlines and riser will be welded at the group’s fabrication facility in Mobile, Alabama.

 “Technip will build on its unique vertical integration in subsea to provide an all-in-one – the dismantling of the current field in ultra deep waters and the installation of new subsea equipment,” Deanna Goodwin, President of Technip in North America, said.

Offshore installation is scheduled to take place in the second half of 2016, and will be carried out using vessels from Technip’s fleet. Its Deep Blue deep water pipe layer will install the riser, the flowlines, the umbilical and gas lift. The Global 1200 will install the collector and the foundations.

OIS to carry out multi-operator campaign in North Sea

Offshore Installation Services (OIS) is to decommission 10 subsea wells in the central North Sea as part of a deal with Antrim Energy and Centrica. OIS will charter the necessary vessels, and provide equipment and personnel.

The wells will be abandoned using a suspended well abandonment tool developed by Claxton, which like OIS is a subsidiary of UK subsea specialist Acteon. The tool allows a vessel-based approach to plugging and abandonment which does not require divers.

The well abandonment equipment will be deployed from an anchor-handling vessel. During the first phase, it will set cement plugs after which it will use an abrasive severance system to remove the casing from the wellbore.

OIS has planned and executed 17 campaigns involving more than one operator in the North Sea since 1996. The company has a policy of encouraging operators to share project costs and provides a cost-efficient way to decommission suspended wells and comply with UK oil and gas legislation.

“Since 1996, OIS has successfully completed more than 118 well decommissioning projects without a single lost-time incident. With Antrim Energy and Centrica Energy now involved in our 2015 subsea well abandonment campaign, OIS is decommissioning 10 subsea wells within the UK continental shelf,” Rhodri Davies, President of OIS, said.