Well-Safe Solutions lands another 14-well decommissioning job

Aberdeen-based Well-Safe Solutions has won its second decommissioning contract for the Well-Safe Guardian unit in less than a month, this time with CNR International.

The contract award is for the decommissioning of up to 14 wells on the Banff and Kyle fields. The fields, located in the UK Central North Sea, with nine development wells and five exploration and appraisal wells, are due to be decommissioned with activity scheduled to begin early 2Q 2022, Well-Safe Solutions said on Wednesday.

Phil Milton, Chief Executive Officer at Well-Safe Solutions, said: “The schedule control provided as part of the Repsol Sinopec contract enables Well-Safe to complete the Banff & Kyle wells during 2022, before returning to Repsol Sinopec with the dive system and Subsea Modular Decommissioning Riser Technology (SMART) system installed, allowing the remaining wells to be completed as part of a continuous campaign ensuring the rig team and associated supply chain partners, optimise our efficiencies, retain learnings and deliver our vision for multi-operator, multi-well campaigns.”

Well-Safe Solutions has not provided any financial details about the contract.

When it comes to the CNR International-operated fields, the company in March last year filed its Banff and Kyle fields decommissioning programmes for an FPSO and FSO float-off with the UK authorities. The plans were for the removal of the Petrojarl Banff FPSO and the Apollo Spirit FSO and the associated risers and mooring systems from the Banff and Kyle fields. They were approved in May 2020.

The Banff field is located in blocks 29/2a and 22/27a some 200 kilometres east of Aberdeen in approximately 95 meters of water. The Kyle field is located in block 29/2c and 29/2h which are at the same distance from Aberdeen and in similar water depth.

The removal of the FPSO and FSO is part of a wider Banff and Kyle field decommissioning. This will be carried out in three distinct phases executed over five years.

The Well-Safe Guardian is an Earl & Wright 700 series mid-water semi-submersible unit, which has been optimised specifically for well decommissioning operations in the UK.

The unit in mid-September secured a contract from Repsol Sinopec Resources for the decommissioning of 14 subsea wells in Hannay and Buchan fields off the UK. Both fields produced via the Buchan Alpha floating production unit (FPU) but were isolated in 2017, when the FPU was removed from the station.