Well Ops Awarded Significant Well Intervention Contract

17 February 2011

Aberdeen-based Well Ops UK (Well Ops), a business unit of international energy service company Helix Energy Services Group (Helix ESG), has secured a significant contract with TAQA Bratani (TAQA), the UK subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi national energy company.

The month-long contract will see Well Ops carry out a number of work scopes on the Kestrel, Pelican and Falcon fields located north-east of Shetland. The work commences next month and will be carried out from Well Ops state-of-the-art mono-hull well intervention and diving vessel, the Well Enhancer.

Under the terms of the contract, Well Ops will undertake well maintenance and production enhancement work on a number of wells in the Kestrel and Pelican fields. The work scope on the Falcon field a new development well which is expected to start production later this year will involve the installation of a horizontal subsea tree.

Steve Nairn, Well Ops regional vice president of Europe and Africa, said: We are pleased to be working with TAQA again as they look to optimise and rejuvenate production from a number of their assets on the UKCS. Last year we carried out production enhancement, well maintenance and diving/inspection repair and maintenance (IRM) operations on the Pelican field.

We are seeing encouraging signs for 2011. Our vessel schedules are filling with a number of contracts similar to this for production enhancement, but we also have a significant number of days booked for well decommissioning. The efficiency of our subsea intervention methodology, along with the excellent station keeping performance of the Seawell and Well Enhancer, means we can help improve the economies of all subsea fields, and have a cost effective impact on the common goal of increased production, well performance and integrity.

Launched in 2009, the Well Enhancer is a 132 metre long state-of-the-art vessel that offers wireline and coiled tubing well intervention services. Both Well Ops vessels, the Seawell and the Well Enhancer, are fully-equipped to provide saturation diving operations ably assisted by workclass and observation ROVs which are a permanent fixture on both vessels.

The Well Enhancer features a 150 tonne active/passive heave multipurpose tower capable of deploying wireline, slickline and coiled tubing tool strings. Well Ops believes it is the first service company in the world to have deployed a coiled tubing tool string into a wellbore from a mono-hull vessel. The vessel also features a centralised control room, high volume kill pumps, tracked handling systems, and flare boom for future well testing operations.