Offshore Installation Services (OIS), an Acteon company, has been awarded a contract by Antrim Energy to decommission four subsea wells in the central North Sea. The offshore scope of the campaign, which also includes six wells from Centrica Energy, will include complete offshore and onshore project management, vessel charter, equipment and personnel.
Rhodri Davies, OIS president, said, “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 currently decommissioning 10 subsea wells within the UK continental shelf. As an enabler of multi-operator campaigns, OIS values collaborations such as this in the decommissioning field and is well suited to working alongside progressive organisations such as Antrim and Centrica.”
The wells, in categories 2.1 and 1, will be abandoned using Acteon sister company, Claxton’s, Suspended Well Abandonment Tool (SWAT). SWAT is a diverless, vessel-based approach and will be completed as part of a multi-operator campaign in summer 2015.
The offshore campaign will be conducted from an anchor-handling tug supply vessel (AHTS), the Island Valiant. During phase one, SWAT will be deployed through the vessel’s moon pool to set cement plugs in the bore and across all the casing annuli. The second phase will use an abrasive severance system for the cutting of the wells and sequential removal from the seabed. This will conclude the offshore operations.
OIS is experienced in orchestrating multi-party collaborations, having planned and executed 17 campaigns involving more than one operator in the North Sea since 1996. The OIS business model enables operators to share project costs and provides a cost-efficient way to decommission suspended wells and comply with UK oil and gas legislation.
Global inspection, repair and maintenance (IRM) company Harkand, has commenced decommissioning work in the United Kingdom Continental Shelf supporting Maersk Oil UK’s work in the Leadon field.
Earlier this year, the IRM firm secured a multi-million pound 12-month frame agreement with Maersk Oil in the region for the provision of its two dive support vessels (DSVs), the Harkand Da Vinci and Harkand Atlantis as well as supporting onshore and offshore personnel.
This new award will see Harkand deliver project management and engineering services to the Danish owned oil and gas company around their drill rig program for subsea well plug and abandonment.
The scope of work which is being undertaken by the Harkand Atlantis includes barrier testing at 13 trees, removal of production and gas lift spools at trees and towhead ends along with power and control jumpers and mattress recovery. The works also involves flooding and disconnection of a 4” gas import flowline.
David Kerr, managing director of Harkand Europe said: “We are delighted to have secured this decommissioning work in the North Sea for such a high profile operator.
“Removal of subsea infrastructure can be challenging and this contract reflects our well-established and successful track record for decommissioning activities such as inspection and survey, valve operations, mattress removal, pipeline cutting and recovery.
“There’s an estimated 500 – 690 facilities reaching the end of their operational life over the next three decades, so North Sea asset decommissioning projects will play a large part in Harkand’s future. We look forward to successfully completing this work for Maersk Oil UK.”
Harkand provides offshore vessels, ROVs, diving, survey services, project management and engineering to the oil and gas and renewables industries. Headquartered in London with operations bases in Aberdeen, Houston, Mexico and Ghana, Harkand aims to be the leading subsea IRM and light construction contractor globally.
International oilfield support services company ASCO, has secured a key contract worth in excess of £50 million for work in the North Sea for Marathon Oil UK, further strengthening the company’s market leading positioning in the UK.
Commencing in July 2015, the five-year contract with further extension options, will be serviced out of ASCO’s South Base in Peterhead and will include quayside services, warehouse management and the provision of marine gas oil in support of Marathon Oil’s Brae field.
Well established in the North Sea, ASCO has provided offshore supply base management services to key clients in the region for the last 48 years.
Commenting on the recent contract win, Craig Lennox, CEO Europe at ASCO, said: “ASCO has supported Marathon Oil for many years and we are delighted to secure a new long term contract with them.
“This contract demonstrates the value of ASCO’s integrated service provision within the North Sea and will allow us to build upon our existing strong relationship.”
Earlier this year ASCO announced significant contract wins with BP E&P and Statoil UK. Combined with recent wins, ASCO has secured long-term business in the North Sea worth in excess of £500 million.
ABS, a leading provider of marine and offshore classification services, has been selected by Baoham Offshore (HK) Ltd. to class a drilling semisubmersible and a liftboat.
“This award is a reflection of the solid reputation ABS has built as a classification society over more than 30 years in China,” says ABS Executive Vice President of Energy Project Development Ken Richardson. “We are particularly excited about working with Baoham Offshore as an emerging Chinese company.”
This artist’s rendering shows the three units that will make up the Baoham fleet upon delivery of the newbuilds now on order. According to Baoham Offshore General Manager Xu Jun, the company’s goal is to be a first mover in China. “We are not building on speculation. On top of our first 300-ft harsh-environment ABS-classed liftboat (GM-J1000) already under construction, the addition of these units extends our ambition of building a flexible fleet,” he says. “We believe partnering with ABS will strengthen the foundation we are creating to build our fleet development program.”
The GM-4E mid-water semisubmersible drilling unit will have both an eight-point mooring system and Class 3 dynamic positioning and will feature a variable deck load that exceeds 4,000 metric tons. The GM-J1450 has a water depth capability of 80 m (~260 ft) and will be equipped with a 400-metric-ton deck crane.
“We are pleased to continue our working partnership with Baoham Offshore,” says Global Maritime Engineering Services Manager Mark Cooper, whose company provided the designs for an earlier unit as well as both of the contracted newbuilds. “We are excited to be introducing this flexible design on a groundbreaking project with not only an owner with a strong vision, but a very experienced class society.”
Singaporean engineering house Gulf Offshore will carry out detail engineering and production design. The liftboat will be built at the PaxOcean yard in Zhoushan, China. A yard has not yet been selected for the semisubmersible unit.
Hydraquip Custom Systems Inc., which has produced more than 100 jacking systems over the past two decades, will provide the jacking system for the liftboat, while Gulf Offshore Pte Ltd will provide detail engineering and production design.
McDermott International, Inc. (NYSE: MDR) has been awarded a sizeable lump sum contract by LLOG Exploration Offshore, LLC (LLOG) in support of LLOG’s Otis development located in the Gulf of Mexico. The lump sum contract will be included in McDermott’s second quarter 2015 backlog.
McDermott deepwater rigid reel Lay Vessel 105 (LV 105) is slated to complete offshore installation in early 2016. (Photo: Business Wire)
The Otis field, located in Block Mississippi Canyon 79, will be developed as a subsea tieback to the Delta House floating production system (FPS) and lies in approximately 3,800 feet of water. The contract scope includes:
• Project management;
• Engineering, fabrication and installation of a 75,000-foot insulated rigid flowline and insulated steel catenary riser (SCR) with associated pipeline end termination (PLET) and jumper; and,
• Pre-commissioning.
McDermott’s Houston office will perform the overall project management and engineering. The flowline and SCR are scheduled to be assembled and fabricated at McDermott’s new spoolbase facility in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Offshore installation is scheduled to be completed in early 2016 by McDermott deepwater rigid reel Lay Vessel 105 (LV 105).
“This award represents an important step in McDermott’s growth plans for the Gulf of Mexico,” said Scott Munro, Vice President, Americas, Europe and Africa. “This is our first contract award for rigid reel lay in the area since the delivery of the LV 105 deepwater vessel and development of our new Gulfport marine facility and spoolbase. We look forward to working with LLOG over the coming months and delivering this project safely.”
The Extel Survey gathers the views and rankings of international research analysts for the world's largest publicly traded companies
Repsol was ranked as the top oil & gas company in the 2015 edition of the prestigious international Extel Survey in four categories: Best CEO, Best CFO, Best Investor Relations Team, and Best Director of Investor Relations.
Imaz heads the Oil & Gas European CEO rankings in his first appearance in this survey. Research analysts recognize Repsol's efforts in communication and transparency and in particular those of its CEO, Josu Jon Imaz, in the company's approach to the markets following the purchase of the Canadian company Talisman Energy.
The Extel Survey is currently the most comprehensive of its kind, and is one of the most highly regarded among research analysts and stock market professionals. It is the most prestigious report at the European level, and is considered a benchmark of excellence by investors as well as consultants.
Repsol has this year consolidated the outstanding performance of its investor relations as the CFO, Miguel Martínez, and the Investor Relations Team were already awarded the highest ratings in the European sector in the previous edition.
The plugging and abandonment (P&A) of offshore wells represents a significant cost to operating companies and national authorities. On the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) alone, the cost is estimated to be USD108bn (NOK1870bn) over the next 40 years. Now a new DNV GL guideline will introduce a risk-based approach instead of the current prescriptive practice. DNV GL estimates that when combined with optimized project execution and new technology, the P&A cost can be reduced by 30-50%.
When the production from an oil or gas reservoir ceases or is no longer profitable, authorities require the well to be P&A’d. The purpose is to establish a permanent barrier to prevent the migration of hydrocarbons to the surface. Traditional P&A methods are time consuming, costly and have remained unchanged despite technological advances across many other aspects of the industry. There are currently around 2,350 wells that will require P&A on the NCS, and 3,000 more wells are planned to be drilled in the future. In the UK, close to 5,000 offshore wells will need P&A.
Blackford Dolphin
“These costs are enormous. With current practices, the wells on the NCS will require the deployment of 15 rigs full-time over the next 40 years. Based on the 2013 cost, this is equivalent to more than a tenth of the current value of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund (GPFG),” says Per Jahre-Nilsen, Senior Principal Engineer in DNV GL – Oil & Gas. “We believe the time has come to tackle this issue head on by assisting regulators and the industry to establish a new methodology for dealing with the decommissioning of wells,” he continues.
The main barrier to change in this sector has been today’s prescriptive approach to the regulations, which represents a conservative interpretation of past experience. Practice also differs from country to country. In the upcoming P&A Guideline, DNV GL will use well-known and accepted risk-approach methodology in which both environmental and safety risk aspects will be key factors. DNV GL has already worked with international operators to develop an initial set of criteria. These will be further strengthened through collaboration with regulators and the oil and gas industry. The guidelines are under development and will be issued in the second half of 2015.
“This means that hazardous wells will get the attention they deserve, and benign wells will avoid excessive rig-time and expenditure. We can potentially halve the costs of plugging and abandoning wells. We're looking at potential cost savings of more than USD32bn on the NCS alone, and even more globally,” adds Jahre-Nilsen.
“DNV GL’s contribution as a risk-management expert is to help the industry, which is facing increasingly complex and demanding operations, to understand the risks and find the most efficient way to deal with these risks. Risk-based approaches are widely used in all other offshore disciplines, ensure appropriate long-term environmental protection and also represent the most rigorous method to enhance safety. It is time to apply these principles to P&A,” says Elisabeth Tørstad, CEO of DNV GL -Oil & Gas.
Statoil has awarded Odfjell Drilling two contracts for drilling services on the Johan Sverdrup field. Deepsea Atlantic is awarded a three year contract for drilling production wells and Odfjell Drilling is also awarded a four year contract to provide platform drilling services on the Johan Sverdrup Drilling Platform.
These two contracts represent the recognition of Odfjell Drilling’s ability to provide both mobile drilling and platform drillings services to one of the most prestigious offshore field development projects in the world. We appreciate the trust Statoil and its partners show us, and I can assure that all people in Odfjell Drilling will demonstrate the company’s firm commitment to the successful development and production drilling of Johan Sverdrup, says CEO Simen Lieungh.
The drilling services for the Johan Sverdrup field are covered by two contracts:
These contract awards contribute significantly to increase the order backlog and earnings visibility of Odfjell Drilling during a tough market cycle. The employment of Deepsea Atlantic under a long-term contract in Norway and the increased market share for our platform drilling services in the North Sea are of great importance and inspiration to our whole organization, says Lieungh.
In February 2015, Odfjell Drilling was awarded a sub contract to Aibel to provide drilling facility engineering services to Drilling Platform topside for Johan Sverdrup. By the award of the drilling service contracts, Odfjell Drilling has gained an important position in all phases of the Johan Sverdrup drilling activities, add Simen Lieungh.
Odfjell Drilling has since the 1973 developed as a reliable provider of integrated platform drilling and drilling facility engineering services in the North Sea region. In 1979 Odfjell Drilling was awarded the platform drilling contract on the Statfjord B-platform, one of Statoil’s legacy North Sea installations. This contract represented the start of the development of Odfjell Drilling’s platform drilling services.
The company currently provides integrated drilling services on 19 production facilities in UK and Norway. Under existing contracts with Statoil, Odfjell Drilling already provides platform drilling services on seven installations in Norway and is involved in the design and construction phase of the Mariner field in the UK where drilling operations will commence in 2017.
DNV GL, the leading technical adviser to the oil and gas industry has launched a research paper exploring the viability of moving offshore oil and gas processing subsea, including the techno-economics of an ‘all subsea’ solution. The report addresses current limitations, but also highlights opportunities for subsea technology.
To lend clarity to the topic, the paper compares a benchmark FPSO set-up with a hypothetical all-subsea field development solution. However, instead of making a direct comparison between the two alternatives, the paper adopts a stepwise approach, moving the various main parts of the processing from the topside to the seabed in nine steps until nothing remains on the surface.
Cutting through complexity
Principal researcher and lead author of the paper, Tore Kuhnle, said: “Debates about the viability of ‘all subsea’ solutions can quickly become overwhelmed with complexity due to the interrelations and dependencies between the processing, power, control and safety subsystems, as well as the effects on the reservoir performance and commercial aspects. With our stepwise approach, one can evaluate the business case of subsea solutions progressively and with clarity.”
For each step, the report includes a business case assessment of whether:
• The step is enabling (i.e. opens up new opportunities for the industry that other technological solutions cannot achieve); and / or is enhancing ( i.e. that that aspect of subsea processing offers superior efficiency relative to any other technical solution).
• A bright future for subsea, also in the current market
“The industry has moved from ‘breaking boundaries’ to ‘cost cutting’ in recent years. In that respect, it is reassuring to see that subsea processing is both enabling and enhancing technology for brownfield applications,” added Kuhnle. “Even though brownfields will continue to drive subsea processing development, we have also identified possibilities for greenfield applications. We see that the technology has matured considerably for limited-depth and limited-range applications. With our short-term focus, we see the completely submerged alternative more as a mature-area, midsize oilfield solution, rather than an extreme deepwater, long-range problem-solver. I’d say these are good findings for the industry to consider as we need efficient production replacement projects in the current market, and both these alternatives fit very nicely.”
Elisabeth Tørstad, CEO, DNV GL - Oil & Gas, says,"For DNV GL, it is important to provide foresight and seek alternative solutions which lie far in the future while looking for short-term improvements. This specific research shows that subsea processing is essential to enable prolonged production from mature fields. There are also indications that complete subsea solutions may be a new option for medium sized fields in mature areas."
Hermes Datacomms, a SpeedCast Group Company, announced that it has partnered with O3b Networks, a global satellite operator offering next generation satellite networks, to deliver communications to a global oil company, with major operations in the world’s most important oil and gas regions. Under the contract, Hermes will deliver critical communications for the company’s operations in West Africa and a connection back to their regional headquarters in Europe.
The use of O3b satellites, which are in a unique orbit closer to the earth than conventional geostationary satellites, reduces latency, increases data rates and improves voice and video quality for the end user. The high throughput O3b satellites also offer much greater capacity, with the ability to support up to 1.6 Gigabits in a single beam.
“We are delighted to be the first to provide O3b capacity for the oil and gas sector in West Africa. This will provide our customer with the benefits of satellite connections with the latency of fibre connections,” said Barry Bouwmeester, Business Development Manager, Africa, Hermes Datacomms. “Access to the O3b network gives us the ability to open up new services where it would be difficult to obtain access to fibre.”
Hermes Datacomms and SpeedCast have been working closely with O3b Networks over the last 2 years. The Group now has a number of fully trained O3b installation engineers, who have completed the O3b Networks Installation Training at their factory in Virginia, USA. This announcement follows two other recent announcements by the Group working closely with O3b to deliver service in the Pacific and South East Asia regions.
“Delivering innovative solutions to meet the needs of our energy customers is the cornerstone of our success. With O3b’s network, we are able to deliver high performance capacity and low latency for a superior end-user experience,” said Keith Johnson, SVP of Energy, SpeedCast. “As a company, we pride ourselves on being technology agnostic, always looking for the best solution to provide exceptional customer service in the key countries where our customers operate. This announcement represents our strategic partnership with O3b in the energy business.”
Hermes Datacomms is the newest addition to the SpeedCast Group (“SpeedCast”). The Group’s combined capabilities enable it to provide global coverage, an expanded service portfolio and fully managed, end-to-end communication and IT solutions. This is backed by proactive 24/7 support, local engineering presence and spare management in some of the most demanding markets in the world. Leveraging its global size and scale, SpeedCast is able to effectively deliver and support customers wherever they are.
Leveraging its expertise to meet ultra-deepwater challenges
Technip was awarded by Chevron North America Exploration and Production Company, a division of Chevron U.S.A. Inc., a lump sum project for the decommissioning of the brownfield development and installation of new subsea equipment supporting a floating production system located in Mississippi Canyon, Gulf of Mexico, in a water depth of approximately 2,000 meters. The project scope includes:
Technip's operating center in Houston, Texas, USA, will perform the overall project management. The infield flowline and riser will be welded at the Group’s spoolbase in Mobile, Alabama, USA. The offshore installation is expected to be performed in the second half of 2016 by vessels from Technip’s fleet. The Deep Blue, one of the world's largest ultra-deepwater pipelay and subsea construction vessel shall install the steel lazy wave riser, flowline, and gas lift umbilical, and the Global 1200, will install the manifold and foundation.
Deanna Goodwin, President of Technip in North America, commented: "We are delighted to have secured this work. Technip will utilize its unique subsea vertical integration to deliver an all-in solution for the ultra-deepwater de-commissioning of the current field to installation of the new subsea equipment”.
NorSea Group (UK) Limited has won North-east Scotland’s first major “small piece” decommissioning contract. Work has already begun on the six-month project which is being carried out at NorSea Group’s Peterhead facility on behalf of Endeavour Energy and involves safe disposal of subsea manifolds and associated pipework from the Renee and Rubie fields.
All materials from the fields, which lie 200km North-east of Aberdeen, are being delivered to Smith Quay which is operated by NorSea Group. An important element of the £0.5million contract was the requirement that reuse of returned material be maximised and NorSea Group will achieve a 100% recycling rate.
From left - Guy Cook and Hywel Evans of Endeavour Energy with Mike Munro, Operations Director, NorSea Group (UK) at Smith Quay, Peterhead
The returned material includes 1,000 tonnes of concrete mattresses which will be used as hard core and in road construction projects; 200tonnes of pipework and skid units which will be recycled as scrap metal; manifold valves which will be refurbished and reused and a 17 tonne crossover manifold which will be transported to the Underwater Centre at Fort William where it will be used for diver training.
The work will initially create up to six new jobs.
“This is our first decommissioning win and the first such project to be carried out in the North-east,” said Walter Robertson, MD of NorSea Group (UK). “We are primarily known as a logistics and base services company servicing the offshore industry but as part of our future growth strategy we are developing our decommissioning capability. In the current economic climate we anticipate that many more decommissioning projects will be coming forward and we are already involved in tendering for additional contracts in this area.
“In addition to Peterhead we have facilities at South Quay, Montrose capable of carrying out similar types of small piece decommissioning work, so we see great potential for servicing additional contracts there.”
Operations Director Mike Munro, who is overseeing the work, said Smith Quay and Embankment, was constructed by Peterhead Port Authority to service the DSV and Subsea vessel market and is ideally located to service the northern and central North Sea.
“With 200m of quayside and a draft of 10m, Smith Quay is ideal for the landing of small piece decommissioning works and can handle structures up to 4,000tonnes in weight. A laydown area in excess of 15,000m2 and our on-site crane with a 220t capacity makes us self-sufficient in the landing of most materials and larger capacity cranes are available at short notice.
“We also carry out rigorous testing of all decommissioning materials to detect the presence of NORM (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material) and if it is present, we work with Scotoil Services, our specialist partnership company, to carry out decontamination at our on-site SEPA approved licensed premises.”
NorSea Group took on the operatorship of Smith Quay and Embankment at Peterhead on a 10-year agreement at Q3 2014. This is phase 1 of a 3 phase development that will see expansion onto Merchants Quay and provide 400m of deep-water quayside berthing supported by over 50,000m2 of quayside laydown area. NorSea also has a long term agreement with Scrabster Harbour Trust and a 15-year lease at South Quay in Montrose.
NorSea Group (UK) was established as the UK wing of its Norwegian parent company NorSea Group in 2013 when it opened its first office in Aberdeen. Since then there has been significant growth in the company’s business activity in the UK. In addition to establishing a presence in Aberdeen, NorSea Group acquired Danbor Ltd. the leading Danish offshore logistics company and their UK assets are now incorporated into NorSea Group (UK). In 2014, the company also moved to new premises at NorSea Group House in Altens, providing the company with its own 4,000m2 warehouse, 15,000m2 concreted yard and 800m2 of office space.
International oilfield services company, Expro, has been awarded new contracts from Tullow Oil plc, Africa’s leading independent oil company.
Worth in excess of $100 million over three years, the contracts will see Expro work across Tullow Oil’s assets in Ghana, including the Jubilee Field and the Tweneboa-Enyenra-Ntomme (TEN) field project.
Following on from Expro’s phase one contract for Jubilee, involving more than 10 completions, the company has been awarded continued services for phase 1a. This covers completions on new wells for Jubilee, as well as interventions and remedial work.
A number of Expro’s product lines and services will be utilised, including large bore subsea completion landing strings, subsea exploration and appraisal landing strings, high flow rate surface well testing and sampling services. The TEN project will also see Expro provide subsea completion work in all planned wells.
The company has invested over $32m in Ghana since entering the market in 2008 to support key clients such as Tullow.
Riccardo Muttoni, Expro’s Sub-Saharan Africa Region Director, comments: “We are delighted to work with Tullow in delivering a range of world class projects, strengthening our existing partnership and delivering value to their Ghanaian business.
“These contracts build on investments Expro has made over the past 5 years including the establishment of our world class operating facility in Takoradi. We are proud that 70% of our workforce in-country, including 20 graduate engineers, is Ghanaian, which we are looking to increase to 85% by 2017.”
Charles Darku, Tullow Ghana’s General Manager, said: “We look forward to utilising Expro’s expertise in the offshore environment to deliver our key projects in Ghana. Major investments have been undertakento date by both Tullow and Expro, with emphasis on local content development plans to further create opportunities for local businesses and people.”
Expro’s Sub-Saharan Africa operational headquarters are in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.
Aker Solutions and Baker Hughes have agreed to cooperate on early-phase studies to help customers improve the overall economics and value of oil and gas field developments.
Aker Solutions' Front End Spectrum unit and Baker Hughes' Reservoir Development Services group will provide customers with development concept studies that address the entire value chain - from reservoir understanding and well design to subsea and topsides facilities, including flow assurance and risk management. Each company has expertise from the full spectrum of field development. Initial customer studies are already under way.
"Our ability to maximize value is greatest when we can enter a project early at the appraisal and feasibility stages and evaluate the potential of a field's total development instead of parts of it," said Henning Østvig, head of Front End Spectrum at Aker Solutions. "This greatly increases our success in finding solutions that improve the overall economics and value of a development by optimizing capital expenditure and production."
"While we always want to find the best solutions for our customers, the current market environment gives us an added sense of urgency," said Scott Reeves, president of Reservoir Development Services at Baker Hughes. "No tool is more powerful than an early, integrated approach to field design. This helps ensure that all parts of a project are designed to work together throughout the life of the field."
The new agreement comes after Aker Solutions and Baker Hughes in 2014 formed the Subsea Production Alliance to develop solutions that will boost output, increase recovery rates and reduce costs at subsea fields. The alliance uses Aker Solutions' capabilities in subsea production and processing and Baker Hughes' expertise in well completions and artificial-lift technology to deliver integrated in-well and subsea systems solutions. The importance of cooperating during the early phase of a project was recognized quickly in the alliance.
The Front End Spectrum unit and Reservoir Development Services group maintain independent offices in Houston, Oslo, London, Aberdeen, Kuala Lumpur, Perth, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Moscow.
Aker Solutions' Front End Spectrum unit provides expertise in subsea and topsides systems, life-of-field production management and flow assurance. Baker Hughes' Reservoir Development Services group uses its subsurface expertise to improve reservoir understanding and determine efficient methods to capture a field's full potential.
Most people know Alaska as the last frontier – a vast place where nature can be wild, unpredictable and uncooperative. Case in point: the Prudhoe Bay oilfields, where about half a million barrels of oil is extracted each day. One of the drilling sites is Endicott, located on a spit of land connected by the gravel Prudhoe Bay road system and normally accessible by truck. That is until recently, when the road was washed out. Faced with the dilemma of how to get workers, food and supplies to the work site, Hilcorp, one of the largest, privately-held exploration and production companies in the United States, turned to Crowley.
“With the road cut-off and heavy fog preventing helicopters from flying in and out, Hilcorp diverted the hovercraft Arctic Hawk from its normal duties of supporting NorthStar Island, to shuttle people, groceries and other supplies to Endicott,” said Bruce Harland, Crowley vice president. “Hilcorp was already chartering the Arctic Hawk to provide a similar shuttle service to and from their Northstar Island drill site, so this was a natural extension of that service, which we were happy to provide.”
The Arctic Hawk, Crowley Offshore Services’ hovercraft, entered service in Prudhoe Bay in 2004 transferring BP work crews (now Hilcorp work crews) between land and the Northstar Island production facility about six miles offshore in the Beaufort Sea. A hovercraft is the most practical mode of transport for this service as the route must be traveled over open water in summer and ice during the winter and a mixture of ice and water during freeze-up and break-up. The Arctic Hawk is 38.8 feet in length with a 15.5 foot beam. It is considered a passenger vessel by the Coast Guard and carries a Certificate of Documentation (admeasured at 17 gross and 14 net tons) and Certificate of Inspection issued by Coast Guard Sector Anchorage.
Statoil and PL602 partners have made a gas discovery in the Gymir prospect. With three discoveries in a row, an important progress has been made in unlocking full potential of the Aasta Hansteen area.
“Our 2015 exploration campaign around Aasta Hansteen has proven an upside potential in the area. The estimated total volumes in the three discoveries, Snefrid Nord, Roald Rygg and Gymir, amount to 75-120 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent, corresponding to about 1/3 of the Aasta Hansteen recoverable volumes. The discoveries will now be further evaluated for future tie-in to the Aasta Hansteen facilities in order to optimize utilization of the infrastructure and prolong the production plateau,” says Dan Tuppen, vice president exploration Norwegian and Barents Sea in Statoil.
The well 6706/11-2, drilled by the Transocean Spitsbergen rig in the Gymir prospect, proved a gross 70-metre gas column in the Nise Formation with good reservoir qualities. Statoil estimates the volumes in Gymir to be in the range of 6-19 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent. Gymir is located just 8 kilometers away from Roald Rygg and 14 kilometers away from Snefrid Nord.
Aasta Hansteen will be the largest SPAR platform in the world and is the biggest ongoing field development project in the Norwegian Sea. It is one of the main projects in Statoil’s portfolio. The plan for development and operations (PDO) was approved by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in 2013. Production start-up is expected in 2017.
“Additional reserves from the three discoveries tied in to Aasta Hansteen will be important for increasing the value of the Aasta Hansteen investment,” says Torolf Christensen, Statoil vice president for the Aasta Hansteen project.
The drilling operations in all three wells have been extremely efficient, making them the fastest deep-water wells ever drilled on the Norwegian continental shelf. The Gymir well has been completed in just 13 days, which is a unique drilling performance for a deep water well.
“The total savings achieved in the three wells amount to 50 days or 360 MNOK compared to the initial plan. This is a result of STEP (Statoil technical efficiency program) within drilling and well, and the ability of the onshore planning team and the Transocean Spitsbergen crew to take out the full potential of the drilling process. The efficiency gains were achieved while keeping high HSE standards,” says Thor Emil Bensvik, head of Statoil exploration drilling operations on the NCS.
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