Aberdeen-headquartered international oilfield services company, Expro, has strengthened its operations in the North Sea with $25million in contract wins secured in the UK and Norway, where it will officially open a new facility later this month.
The news is particularly welcome both in terms of its timing . . . Offshore Europe . . . and it demonstrates that business continues in the North Sea, despite the current oil price slump.
Expro has been awarded a subsea contract for the Norwegian arm of German oil & gas producer, Wintershall, covering the Haltenbanken area of the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).
The five-year contract, for the company’s Maria project, includes multi-well completions with two optional two-year extensions.
The scope of the arrangement includes the supply of a complete workover riser system including surface test tree and subsea landing string systems.
Operations, maintenance and engineering support services will also be provided for the system including global riser analysis and life cycle fatigue monitoring.
Recoverable reserves on the field are estimated around 180million barrels equivalent, of which the majority is oil.
The planned production start-up for Maria is end 2018, and the estimated production period is 23 years.
Expro’s work in Norway will be supported by a major new base in Tananger. The 19,000sq.m facility will house several of the company’s key product lines including drill-stem testing and Well testing, and will comprise an office building, yard and workshop with the capability to rig-up four well test packages, and service a further six, simultaneously.
In the UK Central North Sea, the company has won a contract with Premier Oil for its Catcher development. The work covers surface well testing and fluid analysis services on 22 subsea wells for three years, with options for three one-year extensions.
Expro has been the leading supplier of well testing services to Premier since 2009, and is currently undertaking work in the Solan field, which is in the late stages of development West of Shetland.
Catcher is estimated to hold around 135million barrels of recoverable oil. It is located on Central North Sea block 28/9 in a water depth of 91m.
Premier plans to drill 14 subsea production wells and eight water injection wells to develop the neighbouring Catcher, Varadero and Burgman fields. The wells will be tied back to a leased FPSO with oil being offloaded to tankers and gas being exported through the SEGAL facilities. The $1.7billion project is scheduled for start-up in mid-2017.
Expro’s latest big wins are complemented by further contract extensions with key clients across the UKCS covering well-test, clean-up and slick-line services.
Neil Sims, Expro’s VP Europe CIS, said of the various wins: “These are testament to the strong relationships Expro maintain with key clients across Europe.
“Expro’s world-renowned subsea technology and fluids expertise have been applied in similar successful projects across the North Sea, and we have provided over 2,000 well tests and 150 well testing packages to the global oil and gas industry.
“In the UK, developments such as Catcher are integral to the future of the North Sea, and these contracts will see Expro utilise local expertise and the supply chain in Aberdeen and Great Yarmouth.
“In Norway, we have underlined our commitment to projects in the region with significant investment in our new base and technology – including over $10million in capital expenditure for new equipment to services well test projects since 2012.”
Expro will be exhibiting at Offshore Europe 2015 in Aberdeen’s exhibition & conference centre. Stand number is: 2C130
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