Offshore NEWS

The Norwegian engineering firm, Aker Solutions has developed a new workover system to enable safe well access for subsea installation and completion. The system vouches to enable faster and cost-effective planned well interventions. The company noted that the new workover concept will first be applied to Norwegian firm Equinor’s Visund field in the northern part of the North Sea. The field has a water depth of 335m.

WFS Technologies has joined forces with Subsea Energy Solutions to harness their combined global expertise and market-leading range of live condition monitored cable protection systems for the offshore energy industry. The collaboration will see WFS utilize its smart wireless Seatooth technologies, which provide real-time insight in extreme environments, with SES’s offshore cable and subsea umbilical, riser and flowline protection systems.

Neptune Energy has conducted what is reportedly the “world’s first” dual drilling operation from an integrated subsea template structure at the Fenja field in the Norwegian North Sea. Neptune teams maximized the full capabilities of Seadrill’s West Phoenix drilling rig to drill two wellbores at the same time. This is a monumental step and can be adopted as a standard practice in the future.

Offshore drilling contractor, Maersk Drilling has landed drilling work contract for Maersk Intrepid from Equinor at the Martin Linge field, offshore Norway. Made for carrying out work in ultra-harsh environments, the jack-up rig will commence work in September this year and will drill three wells and plug one on the Martin Linge field. The contract also involves managed pressure drilling (MPD), slop treatment, cuttings handling and tubular running services.

Subsea contractor, Ocean Installer has contracted Island Offshore's Island Victory deep-water installation vessel for work in the Barents Sea. The vessel will carry out development programmes on Askeladd and Johan Castberg fields, owned by Equinor. The work at Askeladd field includes the installation of subsea manifolds, apart from conducting surveys and other subsea activity. At Johan Castberg, the work includes the installation of a mooring system including suction anchors and chain.

Norway's BW Offshore has landed a five-year contract for the lease and operation of the BW Pioneer from MP Gulf of Mexico, LLC. The contract, concluding in March 2025, has an option to extend for another five-year. CEO, BW Offshore said, “We are very pleased to have reached a long-term agreement with MP GOM for the BW Pioneer, confirming our strong relationship with MP GOM on the Cascade and Chinook fields”.

Swedish engineering group, Sandvik has landed the first large scale stainless steel umbilical tube contract in Brazil’s Mero oilfield. The Brazil offshore industry typically uses thermoplastic hose umbilicals. The contract will see Sandvik providing over 500 kms of super duplex Sandvik SAF 2507® stainless steel umbilical tubes encapsulated by Prysmian Group. The Mero oilfield is by a consortium of Petrobras, Total, Shell Brasil, CNPC and CNOOC Ltd.

Grupo R has signed a contract with Shell for the lease of the La Muralla IV platform. Under the scope of this contract, Shell will have the drilling rig and a support team to drill three wells in the Gulf of Mexico. The activities will begin in the third quarter of 2020. This contract is a part of Shell's strategy to escalate deep-sea exploration in its Mexican operations.

South Korean coast guard and the refiner S-Oil, yesterday, informed about containing a crude oil spill from the refiner's offshore buoy off the southeastern coast of the country. The leak which occurred early Wednesday was attributed to the buoy's broken pressure gauge, however, the leak source was later sealed, the Ulsan Coast Guard said in a statement. S-Oil is investigating the case, a spokesman for the company said.

On Monday, bombs planted underwater off Syria's coast exploded. The explosion has destroyed oil facilities that used to pump oil into one of Syria's two petroleum refineries. The imposition of sanction has already led to fuel shortages in Syria since last year. Oil minister Ali Ghanem said, "The aim of the attack is to cease (oil) imports into Syria". As of yet, no one has taken responsibility of this attack.

American E&P firm, Noble Energy has contracted Maersk Drilling's Valiant for the work offshore Colombia. The contract is valued at $18.2m and is expected to be concluded in 65 days. Noble said that the contract fees also includes mobilization and demobilization services. The 2013-built Maersk Valiant is Maersk Drilling’s seventh-generation drillship and comes equipped with integrated managed pressure drilling (MPD) capabilities.

Oil supermajor, Total has inked an agreement with Angolian state-owned Sonangol to buy stakes in two blocks of the Kwanza Basin, offshore Angola. The deal will gain Total ownership to 50% working interest in Block 20/11, and 80% working interest in Block 21/09. While the payment of $400m to Sonangol will come upon completion of the transaction, another $100m will be funded after reaching a final investment decision (FID).

Continuing on its growth strategy, Scottish service provider, Motive Offshore has concluded the purchase of Norway-based Pumptech for a seven-figure sum. The acquisition will allow Motive to leverage Pumptech’s large fleet of zone-2-accredited hydraulic pump units (HPUs), apart from their expertise in flexible flowlines and umbilical testing. Richard Charles has been appointed as Flexibles Division Manager for the new division.

Aquarius Marine Coatings (AMC) has introduced a new anti-foul coating solution for offshore oil and gas. Coppercoat-Commercial has high levels of copper and is a natural anti-microbial agent. It will effectively protect sub-sea infrastructure from hosting layers of plant, animal and microbe growth. This coating does not contain any volatile organic compounds and offers protection against degradation forms.

Rovco, a subsea technology company has launched a new product called “SubSLAM Live”. It is 3D streaming technology which will allow clients to live stream 3D underwater point clouds to any device in the world. “The model is compressed and progressively sent over a low-bandwidth <256Kb network link to a cloud server along with the ROV's position", says Rovoco's CSO.

Drilling services provider, Valaris has landed new contracts and extensions for its drilling rigs, with approximately $285m in associated revenue backlog. The drillship Valaris DS-18 (Relentless) has been granted contract extension with EnVen in the US Gulf of Mexico. Valaris also landed contracts and extensions for DS-15, JU-292, JU-290, JU-249, JU-144, and others.

Viewport3 is a Subsea 3D scanning specialist and has bagged two pre-removal scanning contracts. These contracts have a combined value of £100k. After securing these contracts the company will embark its new journey in the decommissioning market. The technologies provided by Viewport3 will help the operators in making decisions about the removal of items from the seabed, reduce ad-hoc engineering and minimize time spent offshore.

Oil major Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil have taken on lease offshore block for 30 years. The companies have paid Somalia $1.7 mn as the preliminary rent. According to the information from Shell, these charges are for retrospective charges. Also, the operation will be withheld in what is known as force majeure.