ConocoPhillips hands out plug and abandonment work to Aberdeen-based firm

Texas-headquartered energy giant ConocoPhillips has handed out a global contract to Aberdeen-based technology company, Raptor Data, to manufacture and utilize a fleet of tools, which will initially be deployed in Norway.

Pathfinder, described as the first plug-and-play in-well verification system, is said to enable Raptor Data to verify the effectiveness of bismuth caps, a chemical element increasingly used in the oil and gas industry for well intervention and plug and abandonment due to its advantages over cement.

According to Raptor Data, the advanced verification and validation equipment integrates wellbore pressure, temperature, distributed temperature, and broadband acoustic analytics to ensure reliable installation and performance of wellbore plugs.

“I am pleased ConocoPhillips has selected Raptor to further develop and deploy our proprietary acoustic telemetry and wellbore plug verification services,” said Paul McClure, CEO of Raptor.

“ConocoPhillips and Raptor have worked together over several years to refine wellbore plug verification technology, particularly for use with bismuth barriers. This contract will enable Raptor to deploy systems to ConocoPhillips operations and demonstrate the operational value of this technology for right-first-time barrier installation with quantifiable assurance metrics”.

ConocoPhillips is the operator of the Greater Ekofisk Area (GEA) in the North Sea, located about 300 kilometers southwest of Stavanger, where five fields produce oil and gas/hydrocarbons: Ekofisk, Eldfisk, Embla, Tor, and Tommeliten A.

Regarding the U.S. player’s recent activities in Norway, the company brought on stream an oil project in May, which has been tied to one of the fields in the Greater Ekofisk Area in the southern part of the North Sea. 

The business side of things seems to be going well for ConocoPhillips, as the firm, along with its peers – BP, Shell, Eni, and ExxonMobil – exceeded analysts’ expectations in the second quarter of 2024, contributing to a combined profit of $31.65 billion for major European and U.S. oil majors.