Well-Safe Solution’s Defender rig is now moored up in the Cromarty Firth ahead of embarking on its inaugural contact under its new guise.
Aventus Energy has shared footage of the semi-submersible, formerly the WilPhoenix, arriving in Invergordon to prepare for its P&A campaign with Spirit Energy.
It is due to head out to the North Sea in March to tackle 14 wells on the Trees and Chestnut fields.
A Well-Safe Solutions spokesperson said: “The Well-Safe Defender has been brought quayside in Invergordon to enable the final phase of well plug and abandonment-specific upgrades to begin.
“We are very much looking forward to its mobilisation for Spirit Energy later this quarter and thank Aventus Energy and our supply chain partners for their assistance to date.”
In a post online, Aventus Energy said: “Aventus Energy were delighted to support Well-Safe Solutions and First Marine Solutions with bringing their newest addition, the Well-Safe Defender into Invergordon. With our service partners, we were able to execute the safe arrival and mooring at Invergordon.
“We now look forward to continuing working with the Well-Safe Solutions team to execute a number of scopes onboard ahead of mobilisation later this year.
“We would like to thank Well-Safe Solutions for entrusting Aventus Energy with this project.”
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Decommissioning specialist Well-Safe previously said the contract with Spirit will create around 60 jobs.
The company bought the Defender, formerly the WilPhoenix, from Awilco Drilling in June last year in a £12.4 million deal.
It subsequently underwent improvements as part of its repurposing as a dedicated plugging and abandonment (P&A) asset, and joins the Guardian and Protector in Well-Safe’s fleet.
Chestnut first came on stream for Spirit Energy in and the firm last year submitted a decommissioning plan for the field, which has produced for a decade longer than planned.
Following speculation that the production vessel – the Hummingbird Spirit FPSO – was destined for scrap, it was then confirmed it had found a new lease of life.
It has been renamed “Excalibur” and is destined for the Ping Petroleum Avalon field next year.
Trees is operated by Spirit as a tie-back to the Brae Alpha platform.
Having started production in 1995, Spirit says the field has an expected field life of “2023+”.
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