CSL Wins North Sea Decommissioning Contract

11 January 2010

Subsea engineering and project management company, CSL, today announced the award of a contract by Silverstone Energy Limited / MCX Exploration (UK) Ltd to decommission the Tristan North West development, located in block 49/29b of the UK Southern North Sea. The lump sum turnkey contract is worth £7.6 million.

Decommissioning the field involves subsea intervention and abandonment of two wells, one live and one suspended, and the decommissioning of the associated subsea infrastructure. The work scope includes environmental and engineering assessments of the decommissioning options, submission and agreement of the decommissioning programme with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), completion of all permits and consents, and execution of the offshore scope of work.

As the contract holder CSL will manage the programme from start to finish and will collaborate on an exclusive basis with Helix Well Ops (UK) Ltd for the provision of well intervention, abandonment engineering and diving services, and with BMT Cordah for environmental management services, including permits, consents and environmental assessments. 

The project team has extensive experience with this type of project. The Helix team has experience of more than 160 well abandonments, more than a third of which were on live wells; BMT Cordah has successfully managed decommissioning programmes for more than 15 years; and in addition to CSL’s decommissioning management experience, the company project-managed the Tristan North West development.

“We’re delighted to secure this contract and to have the opportunity to further strengthen the excellent relationships between our companies,” says Mark Gillespie, CSL Managing Director.  “We’re well-positioned to provide Silverstone with a proven decommissioning team and this project underlines our ability to support operators at every stage in the lifecycle of a field.”

The offshore scope will be performed using the Helix-operated Seawell mono-hull well intervention vessel, as it has the capability to perform live well intervention and diving operations.

Steve Nairn, Helix Well Ops Regional Vice President, says: “Our live well intervention experience and the availability of a purpose-built vessel such as the Seawell is the best option for Silverstone’s decommissioning requirements, which include concurrent well intervention and diving activities.”

David Sell, BMT Cordah Managing Director, says: “We have worked carefully to address environmental issues and meet the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s decommissioning requirements as early as possible during previous decommissioning programmes and this experience is a key element of the support the team will provide to Silverstone on this North Sea project.”

Preliminary engineering work will start immediately and offshore execution is scheduled to take place during 2010.