Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (CNRL) has issued five tenders seeking contractors for decommissioning work on its Ninian assets, according to data from the North Sea Transition Authority’s (NSTA’s) Pathfinder database.
The campaign on the Ninian field, located in the Northern North Sea, will cover topsides and jacket removal and well decommissioning on the Ninian South Platform, Central Platform and Ninian Subsea.
This includes Strathspey, Lyell, Columba E subsea tie-backs, and the remainder of the Ninian field subsea infrastructure including around Ninian Central, Ninian South and Ninian North.
The early stages of the project are already underway, with further pre-FEED/FEED work expected to come in the future.
While the project schedule is not fully defined, completion of the Ninian South well plug and abandonment is anticipated to be in the final quarter 2026, and Ninian Central coming in the first quarter of 2029. Subsea plug and abandonment is set to commence in 2027.
Decommissioning work dominated March’s tenders as exploration work across the UK’s offshore sector remains stagnant.
At present, there are no exploration wells active on the UK continental shelf. In addition, no well programmes have spudded this year, with the first, the Shell-operated 48/8b Selene well, expected to start operations in June.
Spirit Energy
Spirit Energy was among other companies looking for decommissioning contractors to plan and execute a 62-well decommissioning campaign.
The assets Spirit is looking to decommission are located across the East Irish Sea (EIS), Southern North Sea (SNS) and the Greater Markham Area (GMA) zones.
The work description noted that the campaign will likely require a jack-up rig, an accommodation support barge, or a combination of both vessel types.
Shell
The Pathfinder database also showed that Shell is seeking contractors to remove the Leman F & G unmanned platforms and subsea infrastructure in the Southern North Sea.
The platforms are reaching the end of their service lives and are expected to cease production in the mid-2020s.
The decommissioning work covers the platform topsides and jackets, along with the associated pipelines and cables running between them and their tie-backs to the Leman Alpha Complex.
Carbon storage
In addition, Spirit Energy put out another tender, seeking expressions of interest from consultants to provide engineering optimisation and development work on its Morecambe Net Zero carbon storage project.
The work covers two further phases of engineering; optimisation phase and development phases of the project’s pipeline transport and storage system.
The project aims to repurpose the depleted North and South Morecambe gas fields into carbon storage facilities to hold up to 1 gigatonne of CO2 over their lifespan.
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