Offshore staff
THE HAGUE, the Netherlands – Six oil and gas operators in the Dutch North Sea have agreed to participate in a well decommissioning campaign.
The initiative was put together by Nexstep, the national platform for re-use and decommissioning of oil and gas infrastructure in the Netherlands.
Nexstep, created in 2017 by state-owned EBN and the operators’ association NOGEPA, coordinates and seeks dialogue on safe and efficient removal of oil and gas infrastructure in the Netherlands.
Co-operation in decommissioning can bring efficiency gains and cost savings. Over the past two years, the operators had been working on a first joint campaign within the Nexstep partnership, involving removal of mud line suspension wells drilled for exploration purposes, but which never entered production.
These types of wells are said to be relatively straightforward to remove compared with platform wells.
NAM, Neptune Energy, ONE-Dyas, Petrogas, Total E&P Nederland, and Wintershall Noordzee have now issued a joint tender for decommissioning of wells, the first time that wells operated by different companies on the Dutch shelf will be removed in one campaign.
Jacqueline Vaessen, general manager of Nexstep, said: “Special working groups from the oil and gas companies have worked very hard to make this happen. If everything goes according to plan, the project will start this year.
“Such collaboration offers advantages, such as a greater effect of the learning curve due to the larger number of wells being removed. Nexstep will therefore continue to explore the possibilities for new joint campaigns together with the operators.”
02/24/2021
