Claxton Lands Decommissioning Work In North Sea

Claxton has secured a contract to riglessly casing cut and recover seven wells in the Southern North Sea across two platforms and a subsea suspended well at one of the locations, the company said in a news release.

Plans are to start work in July off the Yorkshire coast before moving to the second platform, which is in the North Sea’s Dowsing Fault Zone. The job is expected to take less than 100 days, Claxton said.

Work includes removing christmas trees to make way for the removal of production tubing and wellhead preparation in readiness to undertake the sub-mudline multiconductor/casing cutting and recovery. The work scope also includes severance and conductor recovery of the suspended subsea well. “Due to limited deck space, work will be conducted as a combined operation using a jackup lift barge ‘JULB’ and without the use of a drilling rig,” Claxton said in the release.

In addition to christmas tree and tubing removal, the work scope for the second platform includes supply of BOP equipment and use coiled tubing for cement squeezing operations. The company will use its SABRETM abrasive cutting system 3 m (10 ft) below seabed. In addition, Claxton said it developed a bespoke, all-purpose work deck for the project because of limited space on the platform deck.

TechnipFMC Secures Contracts For IOR, RLWI Projects

Statoil has extended its contract with TechnipFMC for its ongoing engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) work for the Visund Nord IOR project in the Norwegian North Sea.

The EPC project covers the provision of subsea equipment such as template structure, manifold and two subsea trees as well as wellheads and modifications of control systems. The extension includes installation of the template structure and manifold as well as delivery and installation of flowline spool and umbilical.

The project will be executed as an integrated EPC and installation.

In a separate news release, TechnipFMC said it has entered a three-year frame agreement with Woodside Energy Ltd. in Australia. As part of this contract, TechnipFMC will provide riserless light well intervention (RWLI) and subsea services, including intervention, installation, and plug and abandonment services.

TechnipFMC will initially perform installation and RLWI services in the Greater Western Flank Phase 2 (GWF-2) development offshore Western Australia. In addition, the company said it will install subsea trees and deploy its deepwater RLWI stack to perform well intervention services on up to eight subsea wells in the GWF-2 development.

JX Nippon Starts Gas Output From Layang Field In Malaysia

JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp. said its subsidiary started commercial gas output from offshore Layang Field in Malaysia on May 28.

The field is located about 7 km (4.4 miles) east of the producing Helang gas field in Block SK10. Natural gas will be sold as LNG after liquefaction to customers including Japan.

Initial output of natural gas and condensate from Layang Field is estimated about 12,000 boe/d, JX said.

Saipem Taps UTEC For Zohr Field Work Offshore Egypt

UTEC, a global survey company, has won a five-month contract from subsea construction company Saipem to support the Zohr Field development project in the Mediterranean, according to a news release.

Working with Saipem, UTEC will perform surface positioning onboard the Saipem-operated Bautino and Castoro 10 barges and associated anchor-handling vehicles. The company said it will also provide trenching support, including trench monitoring services and as-trenched surveys utilizing its Teledyne Gavia AUVs in water depths of up to 20 m (66 ft).

“The use of low-logistic AUVs is a great example of how our global clients can optimize their offshore operations and reduce costs to projects,” Paul Smith, global director of projects and operations for UTEC, said in the release. “By deploying AUVs from vessels already in field, Saipem has been able to eliminate the requirement for a dedicated survey vessel to support this phase of the project.”

The Eni-operated Zohr Field offshore Egypt is estimated to have about 850 Bcm (30 Tcf) of gas in place.

Wood Group Wins New Contract For Greater Western Flank 2 Project

Wood Group said it has secured a $6 million contract with Woodside to support execution of Phase 2 of the company’s Greater Western Flank (GWF-2) project on the Northwest Shelf (NWS) offshore Western Australia.

As part of the 15-month contract, Wood Group will provide engineering support for the subsea pipeline system during the fabrication and construction stages, the company said.

The contract marks the third received by Wood Group for the GWF-2 project, which develops the resources of the Keast, Dockrell, Sculptor, Rankin, Lady Nora and Pemberton fields. Other jobs landed by Wood Group for the project included detailed engineering design and procurement activities for the pipeline system.

Aquaterra Gears Up For North Sea Abandonment Work

Aquaterra Energy has received a contract to supply subsea high-pressure riser (HPR) equipment and services for a subsea abandonment project in the central North Sea, the company said.

The work involves facilitating the abandonment of 10 subsea wells via deployment of a subsea HPR system from a jackup rig. Aquaterra added that the work could be extended to include two more subsea wells.

“Aquaterra’s Initiation Engineering or ‘Well Start’ specialism has been implemented on the project to deliver a one-stop shop for extensive expertise to optimize well activity by taking responsibility for the entire first phase of the well,” Aquaterra said. “This approach minimizes third-party interfaces across a client’s project and addresses supply and equipment requirements before the introduction of a blowout preventer. It can also mitigate risk and cut down on costly logistics, capex/opex, the number of crew involved and therefore, helicopter and accommodation needs.”

The project is scheduled for completion by fourth-quarter 2017.

—Staff & Reuters Reports

Offshore