Well-Safe Solutions’ rig braves 13 North Sea storms to carry out Spirit Energy’s 15-well decom program

Aberdeen-based decommissioning services provider Well-Safe Solutions has shed more light on its decommissioning assignment with Spirit Energy, a North Sea operator, after crossing the finish line a few months ago, resulting in the completion of abandonment activities for 15 wells and recovery of 45.7 kilometers of tubing and casing alongside four horizontal and six vertical trees.

Well-Safe Solutions won a deal in July 2022 with Spirit Energy for the decommissioning work on the Trees and Chestnut fields to plug and abandon (P&A) 14 wells on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), as the first job secured for the Well-Safe Defender , previously known as WilPhoenix , semi-submersible rig, which was purchased in June 2022 from Awilco Drilling .

Following the decommissioning of wells in the Chestnut and Trees fields, the firm disclosed an agreement with Spirit Energy to expand the existing scope for the rig with another well at the Appleton field, discovered in 1997 by Amoco and Amerada Hess and located 160 miles east of Dundee. The rig owner wrapped up the entire project in spring 2024, with 99.2% uptime on the Well-Safe Defender semi-sub.

In a case study, the firm has offered further insight into the support it offered to the North Sea operator during the decommissioning of 15 wells from April 2023 to March 2024 across the Trees development , encompassing Birch, Chestnut, Sycamore, Larch, and Appleton assets in blocks 16/12a and 16/7 in the Central North Sea, situated in water depths of 125 meters.

The Scottish player, which explains that Trees is a multi-production and injection well subsea development over three oil accumulations – Birch, Larch, and Sycamore – tied back to the Brae Alpha platform , has pinpointed 13 storms that passed through the North Sea during the assignment as one of the most challenging aspects of the project.

However, the company underlined that the severity of these weather conditions did not derail it from the task at hand, as its rig kept working and ticking the required items off its list because of a “considerable focus on planning for safe operations, and new technology optimising safety processes.”

Nicky Riley , Head of Wells at Spirit Energy, praised the Aberdeen-based company’s efforts by pointing out: “Well-Safe’s continued strong performance has allowed us to collaborate further with the team – accelerating the decommissioning of the Appleton well, aligning us further with our strategic pillar of meeting and derisking our decommissioning operations.”

Furthermore, Well-Safe Solutions highlighted that it manufactured and introduced a specialized blow-out preventer (BOP) guide funnel to ensure alignment and deployment of the BOP stack, with offline installation capability.

“This bespoke modification to the Well-Safe Defender reduced the time required for deploying and installing additional equipment such as drilling guidebases, and was used on a well in the Appleton field. […] The work carried out for the Appleton well included our engineering consultancy offering, with front end engineering and design (FEED) work increasing project efficiency and reducing overall cost,” the rig owner elaborated.

Moreover, Well-Safe Solutions outlined in its study that it was able to ‘hop’ the BOP between wells, which is said to have removed the time-consuming process of recovering subsea equipment back to the rig by keeping the BOP underwater throughout. After emphasizing that zero non-productive time (NPT) was recorded, the firm expanded on its activities by adding that 12 runs were made, with four hops and a further 12 pulls.

“With some wells involving dual bore riser activities, Well-Safe Solutions improved operational efficiency by exploiting the ability to ‘rack back’ the dual bore riser with multiple handling tools on relevant wells, a capability built into the Well-Safe Defender,” underscored the rig owner in its case study.

Last month, Well-Safe Solutions confirmed two more contracts , valued at $25 million, for decommissioning operations on the UKCS, which come with an additional $25 million in options for work extending into 2025 and 2026. The company intends to deploy the Well-Safe Protector and Well-Safe Defender rigs for the firm scope, spanning 170 days, to execute campaigns for Spirit Energy and another unnamed operator.

A few months ago, Well-Safe Solutions finished 163 saturation dive operations with its Well-Safe Guardian rig, which was modernized, refurbished, and reconfigured for P&A scopes. This rig is described as the only one in the North Sea equipped with saturation diving capabilities.