Offshore staff
ABERDEEN, UK – Well decommissioning provider Well-Safe Solutions has agreed upon a $15.5-million price for Awilco Drilling’s semisubmersible WilPhoenix.
The Enhanced Pacesetter rig was built in 1983 and underwent refurbishment and upgrading in 2016. After taking delivery next month, Well-Safe plans optimization and recertification measures for future well P&A activity. It will be renamed Well-Safe Defender.
This will be the company’s second semisubmersible. Phil Milton, CEO, said: “Strong demand for our other dedicated P&A semisubmersible rig, the Well-Safe Guardian, demonstrates a clear business case for the need for further specialized assets.”
It also owns and operates the jackup Well-Safe Protector.
Recently, the company saved a North Sea client £3.3 million ($4.13 million) on a proposed program after a review of rig and well operations, planning and logistics. The largest individual saving followed a calculation that the abandonment barrier on one well could be created via two smaller milled windows, with a reduction in milling time and operational risk.
According to Well-Safe, wells to be decommissioned are typically abandoned sequentially, with wireline-based intervention to install barriers and remove any hydrocarbons present in the wellbore (stage AB0).
The tubing is then removed with the BOP installed, with abandonment barriers set in place (stages AB1 and AB2). Finally, conductor cutting and recovery is performed as a batch operation, as part of stage AB3.
The process saved the client 15 hr of operational activity each time the BOP) was off the well, by ‘hopping’ it between wells. This avoided the time-consuming process of removal of the choke and kill hoses along with the bell nipple.
Well-Safe’s team was able to remove the HP riser to be removed, skid the rig to its new location, remove the tree and reinstall the riser, while the BOP remained suspended.
05.04.2022
