Petrofac lands large decommissioning contract in Gulf of Mexico

Oilfield services provider Petrofac and Promethean Decommissioning Company (PDC), a pure-play decommissioning operator, have formed an alliance to decommission the South Pass 60, South Pass 6, and East Breaks 165 fields, offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.

As detailed by Petrofac in a statement on Thursday, the legacy offshore fields and assets include 9 platforms, 200 wells and 32 pipeline segments and the scope includes the decommissioning of the fields.

PDC takes on the role of decommissioning operator and is responsible for fulfilling the field decommissioning orders received from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) in February 2022.

Petrofac has been appointed by PDC as the decommissioning services provider in a contract valued at around US$200 million in line with the BSSE (Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering’s) estimated decommissioning cost.

Petrofac will use its decommissioning programme management systems, tools, and processes to deliver the programme. Its integrated local team, working closely with its wider global decommissioning organisation and supply chain partners, have plugged and abandoned more than 600 wells and decommissioned over 100 facilities.

Nick Shorten, Chief Operating Officer for Petrofac’s Asset Solutions business, said: “This significant contract recognises our industry-leading decommissioning programme management experience and our unique in-house capability to manage all well and asset decommissioning phases. It’s been more than four decades since Petrofac first began in Texas and in that time we have expanded our offshore capabilities across the globe. This expertise will be applied to the project, complemented by our already strong onshore presence in Texas.”

PDC is an operator, focused solely on field decommissioning, and led by specialists with regulatory, management, and governance track records.

The alliance has selected Danos, a Gulf of Mexico offshore services provider with nearly 2,500 employees, to support field operations and the decommissioning programme.

The project will be led from Houston, with the integrated alliance team using the latest digital software, including Petrofac’s proprietary project management tool Turus, to deliver the decommissioning project.

Aditya Singh, Founder and CEO at Promethean Energy Corporation, said: “We are pleased to offer our new outsourced ‘Decommissioning Operator’ service to the industry and to commence activity on this major decommissioning project.”

Singh added: “We are fully aligned with all our stakeholders to improve environmental performance through the safe and efficient decommissioning of end-of-life assets. We accomplish this with a dedicated, fit-for-purpose entity, PDC, via an integrated operating service model and focused programme management.”

A little over a month ago, Petrofac was also awarded a decommissioning contract in Australia. The contract is for Phase 1 of the decommissioning of the FPSO Northern Endeavour.