Aberdeen NEWS

The North Sea’s massive potential contribution to energy security, net zero, jobs and investment topped the agenda at an industry and government summit in Aberdeen on June 27.

Operational Excellence (Opex) Group has backed a multimillion pound contract with Cnooc. It is a three-year deal for Cnooc International's North Sea assets. Opex will roll out its predictive analysis technology at the Buzzard, Golden Eagle and Scott platforms. Also, ts X-pas service will use data science to monitor all the installations. "We are pleased to have extended our scope across the company’s UKCS assets", said Chief Executive of Opex.

Aberdeen-based Well-Safe Solutions has secured a major decommissioning contract of 21 wells on Schooner and Ketch fields in the UKCS. Operated by DNO North Sea (ROGB) Limited, production ceased in Schooner and Ketch fields last August. The contract terms require Well-Safe to deliver engineering, contractor management and logistic services, with DNO holding well operatorship.

Aberdeen Sheriff Court after hearing about the “unplanned release” fined Dana Petroleum £6,000. The court was informed that on July 9, 2016 during the drilling of Well U1-4 at the Ocean Guardian Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit, low toxicity oil based mud was released from onto the sea bed. The failure of the cement job at the casing shoe has been reported as the cause of release.

Calgary-based Canadian Natural Resources International (CNRI) has received a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) notice after failing to issue a warning to the staff at the Ninian Southern platform during an emergency hydrocarbon leak. Although no staff was hurt, an uncontrolled release from an oil well put staff in danger on February 5th at the CNRI-operated platform. HSE regarded CNRI’s methods to caution staff of the emergency “ineffective”.

Aberdeen-based decommissioning specialist, Well Safe has closed a deal to buy the Ocean Guardian semi-submersible drilling rig, its first decommissioning asset. The company has now become oil and gas industry’s top well-decommissioning specialist after this major breakthrough. The acquisition fee has been kept undisclosed but according to Well Safe, the company will spend more than £75 million on the vessel's modification.

Wood has won a contract in the United States for the construction of a natural gas pipeline. The contract is worth £26million. Under the work scope, the company will construct a 28-mile pipeline which will carry gas from Pennsylvania to Ohio. Wood’s CEO of Asset Solutions Americas said, "We’re delighted to be playing a key role in this strategic project".

UK-based RockRose Energy has entered into an agreement to acquire Marathon Oil’s North Sea business. In a deal worth £107 million, RockRose will gain ownership to Marathon’s interests in the Greater Brae, Foinaven East and Foinaven field. The acquisition is estimated to add approximately 35 million barrels of oil reserves in RockRose’s portfolio. Post-completion, Marathon’s assets and teams in North Sea will be transferred to RockRose.

Ithaca Energy has concluded its planned stakes acquisitions in the Greater Stella Area from Petrofac and Dyas. The £228 million worth of transaction will gain Ithaca the ownership of Petrofac’s 20% stakes in the central North Sea production hub. Petrofac will also sell its 24.8% interest in the FPF1 floating production facility to Ithaca. Apart from Petrofac, Aberdeen-based Ithaca also acquired 25% stakes of Dyas UK.

Aberdeen-based ROVOP acquired M2 Subsea’s entire fleet of 28 ROV systems. The fleet acquisition is in line with ROVOP’s growth strategy to offer a focused ROV service to its customers regardless of markets and geographies. While 19 of the ROV systems qualifies the ROVOP standard and will be added to its fleet, the remaining ROVs will be either decommissioned or sold.

Offshore services firm, EnerMech was acquired by private equity firm, Carlyle Group in a $450 million buy-out deal. EnerMech is involved in large scale projects across the sectors of oil and gas, renewables, defence, power, infrastructure and petrochemicals. The firm registered group turnover of £361.4 million in 2017. Final transaction is expected in 4Q2018.

French energy major, Total has granted a contract extension to Aberdeen-based Arnlea to continue the usage of Arnlea’s Intrinsix Materials Management (MM) software until 2022. The Intrinsix MM technology, which is currently deployed at Total’s operations in 4 countries, allows receipt, management and inventory of equipment. Arnlea also entered into an agreement with Shell in Ireland to provide its inspection and maintenance services.

Wood has informed about the multi-million dollar contract award with Evolution Midstream. This contract is for the new gas plant at Wyoming where Wood will have civil and mechanical construction services to provide. The CEO of Wood has informed that the company is mainly excited about the jobs that will be created through this work and is expected to have at least 150 construction roles.

Aberdeen’s Siccar Point Energy planned to drill Lyon well in 2018. But the CEO of the company informed that the campaign has been delayed keeping in mind the impact of poor winter weather in the area. He said, “it makes sense to defer the Lyon well until next year to minimize the likely cost.” North Atlantic’s West Hercules rig was scheduled to move onto Siccar Point after completing appraisal well.

Aberdeen’s Neptune Energy has released its first ever financial report in which over £250 million of net profit has been revealed. The report is based on the company’s earnings in the first half of 2018. Neptune has pumped 166,000 bpd of oil equivalent according to the report. In February, the company acquired the business of Engie which provided it the operatorship of the Cygnus gas field in the North Sea.

The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have sent an improvement notice to Texas-based Marathon Oil following the “lifting incident” in April on the East Brae platform, offshore Aberdeen. HSE has fixed a revised compliance date for Marathon in January next year. Marathon’s spokesperson has said that they are fully engaged with HSE on the matter. The lifting incident on the platform left one injured.

CNOOC wholly-owned subsidiary, Nexen has awarded a contract for the Scott platform in the North Sea to integrity specialist, Pipetech. The scope of the contract covers Active Caisson Management, delivering inspection, cleaning, coating and planned and programmed maintenance. Throughout the lifespan of caisson, the firm will additionally support with repair scheduling to improve cost efficiencies and sustain asset integrity.

Royal Dutch Shell has been penalized with £60,000 by Aberdeen Sheriff Court in lieu of a technician being severely injured on Brent Delta installation. The incident occurred back in 2014 when a gas cylinder unexpectedly discharged, with projectiles to hit a worker. The oil major in a statement said that it “deeply regrets” what happened and has since improved upon safety regulations.