A raft of North Sea decommissioning contracts are on the way from operators including Harbour Energy, Eni, CNOOC, Taqa and more.
Harbour Energy, the newly merged entity of Premier Oil and Chrysaor, said the Balmoral platform is due to leave its namesake field this month, with a contract for dismantling and recycling work expected to be awarded in Q2 of this year.
Premier Oil decided to call time on Balmoral last year due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on its economics.
Information on the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) Pathfinder website shows the estimated schedule of the work.
China’s CNOOC has a trio of tenders upcoming for its Ettrick field, 75miles east of Aberdeen, which achieved cessation of production (COP) back in 2016.
CNOOC is in the process of decommissioning the subsea wells and is this month expected to dish out contracts for a rig, wellhead services and work on wellhead severance.
Plug and abandonment (P&A) makes up roughly half of the cost of decommissioning, meaning lucrative work for those chosen to carry it out, including for some long-suspended wells in the region.
Italian operator Eni intends to fully P&A an exploration and appraisal well (48/30-13) near the Hewett field in the Southern North Sea, which was suspended more than 30 years ago in 1989.
The work, in 2022 or early 2023, is to be done “as economic as possible”, with consideration for “sharing resources in the area, subject to operational constraints”.
Numerous operators have suggested shared P&A campaigns, pooling resources to reduce cost, but the idea has yet to come to fruition.
Elsewhere, Taqa is looking ahead to decommissioning of its East Brae platform, slated for COP in 2023.
A contract for the “East Brae Facilities Removal Project”, including complete removal of the topsides and jacket, is expected to be awarded in 2021, with a contractor screening process having been undertaken.
Work will also be needed to decommission the 21 platform wells at a later date.
Elsewhere Ithaca Energy plans to put contracts out to tender for disposal of subsea facilities in March next year for the Jacky and Athena fields.
CNR International, which earlier this year outlined plans for numerous P&A projects, said it expects work on the Banff and Kyle projects to go out to tender in June.
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