Premier Oil Looks to Utilize OPT PowerBuoy for Decom Ops

Ocean Power Technologies has signed an agreement with Premier Oil to study the feasibility of using the PB3 PowerBuoy for decommissioning operations in the North Sea.

The contract outlines work that will determine the viability of using the PB3 for monitoring and guarding remaining wells and subsea equipment after removal of a floating production, storage and offloading vessel and prior to subsea decommissioning and/or well plugging & abandonment operations.

The PB3 would primarily be used to provide site monitoring and surveillance to prevent vessel intrusion and disturbance of remaining subsea infrastructure.

The study will also evaluate the PB3’s ability to monitor well pressures and temperatures by connecting to subsea control modules. This added functionality could allow more precise planning and prioritization of plugging and abandonment activities by giving accurate real-time information on well integrity, while also enabling PMO to provide regulators with higher quality information on well conditions, OPT said.

George H. Kirby, president and chief executive officer of OPT, stated, “We believe our PowerBuoy could enable Premier Oil and other operators to enhance the decommissioning planning process and at the same time ensure the safety of other users of the sea. The PB3 could potentially serve as an alternative to an on-site guard vessel, aiming to improve health, safety and environmental statistics and reducing operational costs while incorporating clean power into their offshore operations.”

During the study, OPT will work closely with Premier Oil’s other subsea equipment suppliers to produce a design to integrate their equipment into the PB3. If the feasibility study is successful, the next step could be to prove the solution through a North Sea trial deployment in 2018.

“This technology aligns with our goals of increasing safety, efficiency and operational effectiveness through the development and utilization of the most advanced technologies that support our oil and gas activities. The PowerBuoy system will deliver on all these aspects and offer a step change in our decommissioning planning processes. It also opens up potential future applications for intelligent, remotely controlled small field developments,” said Pieter voor de Poorte, Subsea Decommissioning Lead, of Premier Oil.

Kirby added, “We believe the Premier Oil project could lead to other applications including pipeline integrity assurance and the charging of underwater unmanned vehicles, as well as Metocean data collection. We also hope to leverage this work to further expand the use of our PB3 PowerBuoy throughout our other service areas including security, defense and telecommunications.”