Decom World

Scottish independence vote sounds note of suspense for oil and gas sector

Rod Sweet — Mon, 13 May 2013 18:23:46 +0000

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Scotland’s independence referendum is affecting the investment plans of more than a third of oil and gas operators and contractors, according to a survey released today.

The 18th Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce Oil and Gas Survey indicated the referendum is a concern to 38% of those questioned, a rise of 6% on the previous poll.

A “lack of clarity” about what might happen was blamed.

The referendum will be held on 18 September next year.

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Noble’s surprise emergency capping drill deemed a success

Rod Sweet — Mon, 13 May 2013 18:19:40 +0000

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A week-long operation to test an operator’s ability to stop a potential blowout in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico with a massive capping stack in simulated emergency conditions has been successfully carried out.

The surprise drill ordered by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) involved hundreds of people and 15 companies.

The point was to test Noble Energy’s ability to stop a potential subsea blowout in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, plus the ability of the consortium known as the Helix Well Containment Group (HWCG) to mobilize fast in response to an emergency.

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Minister pledges to push plans for carbon storage in North Sea

Rod Sweet — Mon, 13 May 2013 18:15:13 +0000

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The UK’s new energy minister has pledged to drive forward plans to give one of two projects £1 billion to capture CO2 and store it under the North Sea – but one of the projects is in Scotland, and it’s not clear how the approaching independence referendum might affect its chances.

In March, following protracted negotiations, two projects were shortlisted to proceed in the government’s £1 billion Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Commercialization Competition – Peterhead in Scotland and Yorkshire’s White Rose project.

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Blown over: Six crucial lessons from Chevron’s hurricane restoration

Rod Sweet — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:16:32 +0000

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Chevron’s post-hurricane restoration program in the GoM is only now winding up. The cost has been huge but the company says important new lessons have been learned and technologies developed that will change the way the industry does things for the better – whatever the weather.

Thanks to hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and Ike and Gustav in 2008, Chevron suffered damage to 30 platforms, 18 caissons and 325 wells.

Lew Dennis, US offshore decommissioning manager for Chevron, led the company’s Hurricane Restoration Team and says it can be a challenge just appreciating the scale of the damage.

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“Truly amazing” AUV shaves weeks off surveying

Rod Sweet — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:10:46 +0000

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Chevron’s Lew Dennis has spoken about how a new type of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) promises a step change in subsea decommissioning operations.

Describing Chevron’s seven-year restoration program following hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike and Gustav, Lew Dennis, the operator’s US offshore decommissioning manager, told a conference that new technologies played a decisive role in improving safety and efficiency.

Key among these was a new type of AUV that shaved weeks off the surveying of subsea structures.

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BP: What would a case of optimum delivery look like?

Rod Sweet — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:08:06 +0000

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Planning and collaboration can do more to cut costs than technology developments, says BP's Win Thornton.

An operator has outlined how decommissioning costs in the Gulf of Mexico could be reduced sharply with better planning and collaboration among operators and the supply chain.

Win Thornton, vice president of decommissioning at BP Exploration & Production Inc., said costs could be cut by up to 20% if operators coordinated their cessation of production (COP) schedules in order to optimize the deployment of decommissioning teams.

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Uncertainty in the Gulf: the lengthening shadow of Macondo

Rod Sweet — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 08:37:21 +0000

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Conference hears sobering assessment of the fiscal and regulatory challenges facing the Gulf of Mexico decommissioning market.

The decommissioning market in the Gulf of Mexico is facing serious regulatory and fiscal challenges, and the longer-term outlook is uncertain, an expert has warned.

A raft of new rules without the manpower to enforce them, the transfer of decommissioning liabilities down to inadequately financed companies, and the lack of tax incentives to save cash to pay for those liabilities all hamper the smooth functioning of the market, said Professor Eric Smith, associate director of Tulane University Energy Institute in New Orleans.

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“We’re staffing up”: BSEE says recruitment drive will ease permit backlog

Rod Sweet — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:36:59 +0000

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Recruitment drive for engineers is starting to work, says Gulf of Mexico regulator. Plus, a harder line on dumping debris, new decommissioning cost estimates and how BSEE feels about non-cement well barriers.

A key issue in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) has been the bottleneck in permitting at the Bureau of Safety & Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) since the big reorganisation that created it in 2010.

For GoM service providers, it has meant a slowdown in decommissioning activity even though the Idle Iron directive seemed to promise a boom.

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Sea robot promises to break new ground in long-distance well monitoring

Rod Sweet — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:21:06 +0000

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The world’s first wave-powered, autonomous, data-gathering sea robot has received a $45-million cash boost to make itself useful for offshore well integrity monitoring.

Like a silent sea drone, this new invention uses wave energy to propel itself across the surface of the ocean, relentlessly gathering and transmitting data as it goes, in any conditions, for up to a year at a time.

Liquid Robotics Oil & Gas, a joint venture with oilfield technology firm Schlumberger, believes the Wave Glider will help in offshore well integrity by providing better unmanned data gathering for seep and loss detection, weather and oceanography monitoring, and subsea communications.

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North Sea carbon storage inches closer as two preferred bidders are chosen

Rod Sweet — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:40:36 +0000

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The chance of a new industry emerging to pump CO2 from power plants into depleted North Sea oil and gas wells inched a little closer last month when the UK government picked two project ideas to take forward in its £1-billion funding contest designed to commercialise the technique.

Following protracted negotiations, two of four previously shortlisted projects, Peterhead in Scotland and Yorkshire’s White Rose project, will now enter yet more discussions with government in hopes of winning cash for FEED studies this summer.

The studies – FEED is short for “front-end engineering & design” – would create detailed cost and design scenarios for each project and are expected to take 18 months.

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Numbers are the missing link in well integrity management

Rod Sweet — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:11:21 +0000

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It's time to learn from the nuclear industry and pursue a more quantitative approach to risk analysis, expert says.

No matter how experienced your team, the pooling of expertise to manage risk in offshore subterranean environments is going to be guesswork without hard analysis of relevant data, an expert has warned.

John Proust, UK operations manager at Oxand Ltd., says operators should learn a lesson from the nuclear industry and develop a robust, shared database to make a quantitative approach to risk management possible.

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Lawsuit threat renewed over Louisiana Rigs to Reefs fund

Rod Sweet — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:06:09 +0000

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With the next state legislative session only three weeks away, Louisiana's Wildlife and Fisheries Commission has renewed its warning of a lawsuit if Governor Bobby Jindal raids the Rigs to Reefs fund again.

“We're being dishonest to the oil companies. It's 'rigs to reefs.' It's not 'rigs to higher education,' not 'rigs to preschool,' not 'rigs to hospitals,'” said Billy Broussard, vice chairman of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission (LWFC).

Since 2010, Gov. Jindal has taken $45 million from the the Artificial Reef Development Fund, also known as the Rigs to Reefs fund, to cover overruns in the state's budget.

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Power problems hit Statoil's Oseberg field centre

Rod Sweet — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 10:55:32 +0000

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Power outages at Statoil's busy Oseberg field centre in the North Sea caused a gas leak last week. The leak was stopped, but Statoil has flown staff to land to make room for personnel to fix the power problem and resume production.

On the afternoon of Thursday, 14 March, a power outage on board Statoil's Oseberg field centre in the North Sea led to a gas leak, which has been stopped.

The field centre, which Statoil says is “in the middle of an extremely busy period”, has since experienced more power supply problems, the company reported, and work is underway to fix the power supply and resume production.

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Macondo is “far from over”, says Norway's PSA

Rod Sweet — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:44:10 +0000

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Following a major study of the Macondo blowout, Norway's PSA has identified three areas where action is needed to help reduce major accident risk on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

People management, risk and barriers are the big issues to be promoted by Norway's Petroleum Safety Authority following an in-depth study of the Macondo blow-out.

Eleven people died when Transocean's Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible rig caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Mexico during April 2010. Many more were seriously injured, and a huge oil spill was caused.

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Electrical systems pose biggest offshore fire risk

Rod Sweet — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:41:40 +0000

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Technical faults in electrical installations and equipment are the main cause of offshore fires, a new study by Norway's PSA has found.

Following a major investigation of 35 fire incidents between 2001 and 2012, Norway's Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) has found that electrical equipment problems dominate the triggering causes of fire incidents, with random technical equipment faults, age and wear of equipment standing out as the biggest culprits.

The basis for the study was 35 investigation reports selected by the PSA, as well as information from seven interviews with those responsible for the electrical installations.

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Growing scrutiny on HPHT in North Sea well operations

Rod Sweet — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:37:45 +0000

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Last year's leak at Total's Elgin platform has led to renewed scrutiny of high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) well operations, according to the UK's Health and Safety Executive.

Describing the evolving concern over HPHT well operations in recent years, the HSE's Donald Dobson, head of discipline, well engineering and operations, has told a conference that following the Elgin incident a new industry working group on HPHT operations has been established at the HSE's instigation.

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2012: “One of the toughest years in a decade”

Rod Sweet — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 08:49:33 +0000

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Express Energy's Tom Slocum describes how his company is gearing up for the expected uplift in Gulf of Mexico decommissioning.

“2012 was one of the toughest years in decommissioning and well abandonment I've seen in a decade,” says Tom Slocum.

Vice president of well intervention and decommissioning at Houston-based Express Energy Services, Slocum said revenues and activities were down substantially last year due to a backlog in permitting.

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Governor's raids on Rigs to Reefs fund call program into question

Rod Sweet — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 08:07:16 +0000

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Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has once more come under fire for raiding the state's Rigs to Reefs fund to keep his budget balanced, but the program's overseers are threatening a legal fight-back if he does it again.

Since 2010, Jindal has taken $45 million from the fund to cover budget overruns, according to reports.

Now the Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, which oversees the program, is reported to be considering a lawsuit to get the money back if any more is taken.

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Stop “Idle Iron” destruction immediately, US congressmen demand

Rod Sweet — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 20:00:02 +0000

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Federal politicians call for a halt to the destruction of unused rigs under the “Idle Iron” mandate after video shows thousands of fish killed by an explosion.

“As a scientist, I think it's abominable,” said University of South Alabama professor Robert L. Shipp, when shown the video.

“It's a cryin' shame,” chipped in charter fishing boat captain Jason Domange, when he saw it. “They tell us not to fish [red snapper] but they're blowing them up,” he said.

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Vessel disputes: Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, which is the biggest of them all?

Rod Sweet — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:30:24 +0000

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Last month we wrote about Stone Energy using what it believed to be the world's largest self-elevating, self-propelled vessel. But we got it wrong, according to Lars Blicher.

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Whatever happened to the UK storing carbon in abandoned North Sea wells?

Rod Sweet — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 09:27:56 +0000

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In the UK, the government claims to have a billion pounds set aside to pilot the technique, and four major trial projects have been shortlisted, all proposing to inject the captured CO2 into depleted oil and gas fields in the North Sea. But big questions remain.

Should the UK's decommissioning community be tooling up to handle carbon capture and storage (CCS)?

After all, industrially captured and compressed CO₂ is not something you want to mess around with unprepared.

With CCS schemes, it's pumped back into the earth in the liquid-like state it enters when pushed above its critical pressure, of 73.82 bar, and above its critical temperature, of 31.04°C.

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Dealing with the North Sea maturity challenge

Rod Sweet — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 18:00:11 +0000

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What's shaping the North Sea decommissioning agenda for 2013? We asked Paul Handsley and Connon Craig, operations manager and well integrity manager, respectively, at Aberdeen-based Axis Well Technology.

Here's what they told us:

Ageing infrastructure presents a growing challenge for well integrity.
Operators are working towards building a much more detailed picture of their decommissioning liabilities.
Light-well intervention vessels are popular and effective but require unique expertise and risk management.
Intelligent well completion technology is an area to watch.

Ageing infrastructure

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New heavy-lift vessel brings one-stop decommissioning into reach for Stone

Rod Sweet — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 17:34:26 +0000

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Stone Energy says it is realising big efficiencies in its decommissioning in the Gulf of Mexico by using what it believes is the world's largest self-elevating, self-propelled vessel.

The 335-foot-class, dynamically-positioned liftboat, completed in 2012 by Montco Offshore, allows the company, in a significant percentage of cases, to perform all stages of the decommissioning process in a single mobilisation, said Gary Siems, Decommissioning Manager for Stone Energy.

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We need open reporting to ensure well integrity, says Norway's PSA

Rod Sweet — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 17:30:02 +0000

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Norwegian safety body says that asking operators to start declaring well conditions seven years ago pushed good barrier management higher up the agenda.

Norway's safety regulator, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), is calling for the open sharing of well-condition data in countries around the world after such a programme on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) reduced the number of unsafe wells from over 25 per cent of the total five years ago to 8.6 per cent now.

Arne Enoksen told DecomWorld that just asking operators to report on well integrity in their assets pushed maintenance higher up the agenda and led to a dramatic decrease in problem wells.

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Could 2013 be the year of effective barrier management?

Rod Sweet — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 17:24:35 +0000

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Amid high-profile leaks and blowouts of recent years, there is fresh impetus from Norway to bring both a sharper focus and new thinking to bear on this critical issue.

Thirty years ago, platforms on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) were designed for wells within a 3-km radius. This meant you needed multiple platforms to service a large reservoir. Technology has come a long way since then: today it's possible to reach targets 12 km from a typical platform.

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Statoil's $7-bn move on Mariner is UK's offshore project of the decade

Rod Sweet — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:56:32 +0000

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Thanks in part to UK tax changes, Statoil has decided that the time is right to develop the Mariner Field in the North Sea, and plans an investment of over US$ 7 billion, making it the largest new offshore development in the UK in more than a decade.

“We are satisfied that we now are able to make an investment decision for a profitable development of the Mariner field,” said Lars Christian Bacher, Statoil's executive VP for development and production, on December 21.

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Shelley’s smooth farewell

Dan Mccue — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 20:32:38 +0000

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As much as 98% of a relatively young oil or gas installation can be recycled or refurbished, one North Sea operator found

By Sam Phipps

When the Shelley field produced its first oil in August 2009, total recoverable reserves were estimated at 20 million barrels, with subsea design life of three years. However, poor reservoir performance resulted in cessation of production (CoP) just a year later.

The challenge facing the operator, Premier Oil Ltd, was therefore to decommission Shelley prematurely, with minimal cost overruns and in accordance with environmental and health and safety legislation.

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5th Annual Decommissioning & Abandonment Summit

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