Helix Well Ops Expands Well Intervention Fleet

15 August 2012

Aberdeen-based Helix Well Ops UK (Well Ops), a business unit of international offshore energy company Helix Energy Solutions Group (Helix ESG), is expanding its Europe and Africa well intervention fleet with an investment that will create 60 jobs.

Well Ops will take control of the monohull well intervention vessel Skandi Constructor in spring 2013, after agreeing a three-year charter with DOF Subsea.

The move to strengthen Well Ops' regional fleet, which currently includes the 132m Well Enhancer and 114m MSV Seawell, will lead to the creation of approximately 50 jobs offshore and a further 10 onshore over the next nine months. At the moment the firm employs 70 staff in Aberdeen and a further 300 offshore.

Launched in 2009, Skandi Constructor is a 120m Ulstein SX121 DP3 monohull well intervention vessel.

The vessel can accommodates up to 100 personnel and is capable of working in depths of up to 3,000m. It has a deck area of 1,470m2 and a 8m x 8m moonpool, 150 tonne crane, a multi-purpose tower with 140-tonne lift capability and two work-class ROVs.

Well Ops will build and test, ready for use, a specially designed version of its subsea intervention lubricator (SIL) to enable subsea well interventions to be undertaken from Skandi Constructor.

The SIL is a single trip well intervention system that provides well access, while managing containment when the well is live and under pressure.

The SIL is configured to undertake work through all types of subsea xmas trees. The vessel and SIL will allow Well Ops to provide its regional clients with a solution for deeper water wells and well interventions, which to date has been limited within the mono-hull vessel market.