Regulator accepts Woodside’s Wanaea well intervention plan

Australian operator Woodside’s environment plan for well intervention at the Wanaea field located offshore Western Australia has been approved by the country’s offshore regulator.

Woodside submitted the plan on March 22, 2019, and the Australian offshore petroleum regulator, NOPSEMA, accepted it on Tuesday, May 21.

Woodside is planning to undertake remediation activities on the Wanaea-03 and Wanaea-11a subsea production wells between August and November 2019.

The wells are located about 120 km north west of Dampier, Western Australia and form part of the subsea production infrastructure for the Woodside-operated Okha floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. The Wanaea-03 and Wanaea-11A wells are two of 14 subsea production wells tied back to the production facility via subsea production manifold.

The Okha FPSO was commissioned in September 2011 and has been designed to extract, process, store and offload oil and export gas from the Cossack, Wanaea, Lambert and Hermes fields.

Both wells are currently suspended and while no future production is planned from Wanaea-03, Wanaea-11a is planned to be brought back online following successful remediation.

Well intervention ops

Wanaea-03 is currently suspended due to a minor dry gas leak that has previously been observed. An intervention is required to install three mechanical plugs to re-instate well integrity barriers.

Wanaea-11A is currently suspended due to the identification of a leak within the well. An intervention is planned to diagnose and repair the leak through installation of a straddle across the leak point. If this is unsuccessful, a series of mechanical plugs will be installed to permanently suspend the well.

Each of the well interventions is expected to take up to 14 days with a contingency of up to 10 days per well.

Woodside plans to use the Sapura Constructor vessel to conduct the remediation activities. The Sapura Constructor is a 117 m subsea support vessel equipped with a saturation dive system, two ROVs, well intervention equipment, a helideck and accommodation for 120 personnel.

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