GMS wraps up intervention job on live well using cantilever workover

Gulf Marine Services (GMS) has completed its first well intervention workscope using the company’s cantilever workover system, installed on the self-propelled vessel GMS Evolution.

GMS said on Tuesday that, under a contract for a NOC client in the MENA region, this was the first occasion that the cantilever system has been used on a live well.

The technology was designed and developed by GMS.

GMS explained that the key operational advantages of cantilever technology include eliminating lifting over live wellheads, reduction in well-intervention time, a radical improvement in transfer time, platform to platform, over conventional rigs, and consequent cost savings for the field operator.

According to GMS, the workscope involved a heavy coiled tubing well intervention, required multiple changes of bottom hole assembly, and was carried out in a third of the time that this operation would traditionally take.

GMS added that further efficiencies were achieved, with movements between platforms reduced to a tenth of the time taken by a conventional drilling rig, which is customarily used for intervention activities.

The GMS Evolution has now moved to the next platform in the field to complete a similar scope.

Tim Summers, GMS Executive Chairman, said: “GMS is the only company in the world with this SESV technology”.

Summers added: “The cantilever system onboard Evolution is capable of carrying out aspects of well workover activity normally conducted by a drilling rig; however, its real strength comes when frequent moves within the field are required.

“Being self-propelled, and unlike a drilling rig, the vessel does not rely on tug support so can move between locations at a fraction of the time a drilling rig requires. This offers significant cost and time savings to our clients for a well intervention programme”.