A Norwegian-Australian partnership has won its first Australasian contract after securing a subsea wellhead foundation contract for Woodside Energy’s Ferrand exploration well in the Carnarvon Basin.
Norway’s Neodrill and Perth-based Icon Engineering have teamed up to rent and install Neodrill’s patented suction-based conductor anchor node, the CAN-ductor.
The Ferrand well is located in around 1500 meters water depth in Block WA-404-P, approximately 260 kilometers NW from Dampier, Western Australia, and is scheduled to be drilled in the second quarter of 2018.
According to Neodrill, the CAN-ductor offers a new approach of installing a subsea wellhead foundation and was developed in order to pre-install drilling conductors with anchor handling or light construction vessels instead of drilling rigs.
The CAN-ductor is in principle a combination of a specially designed suction anchor and a centrally placed single length of conductor.
Icon managing director, David Field , said pre-installing a Neodrill CAN-ductor with a light vessel instead of a drilling rig would mean cutting days from the rig time required to safely drill offshore wells.
“The CAN-ductor’s ability to be deployed by a less expensive vessel, such as an Anchor Handling (AHTS) or Construction Support Vessel (CSV) means the operator’s drilling budget can be reduced, whether they are exploration or production wells.”
“This is in addition to the higher operational and accidental well load capacities, fatigue risk mitigation and reduced environmental footprint,” he said.
Neodrill chief executive officer, Jostein Aleksandersen , said: “The CAN-ductor has proven to save 3-4 rig days including plugging and abandonment (P&A) operations.”
“We are very happy having secured our first project with Woodside together with Icon, and are very optimistic for the future.”