Oil giant Apache has awarded a contract to an Aberdeen energy engineering consultancy for two new wells on existing North Sea fields.
Xodus Group will deliver subsea engineering services for the infill wells to be drilled on the Nevis and Skene fields in the Northern North Sea.
The project includes a novel idea of designing and fabricating spools with no requirement for measurement, focusing on time and effort savings, Xodus said.
The latest win follows a number of successful projects delivered for the North Sea operator over the last 18 months, including the concept, front end engineering design (FEED) and detailed design studies for the Beryl field’s far north Triassic (FNT) subsea tie-back, which was 2.5miles long.
This consisted of a production flexible, gas lift flexible and an electro-hydraulic controls (EHC) umbilical tied back to Apache’s Beryl Bravo platform, which has been producing since 1984.
Xodus also managed the delivery of the production flexible on behalf of Apache and helped the operator to achieve first oil just 11 months after drilling the well, ahead of schedule and over 30% under budget.
Andrew Wylie, Scotland subsea & pipelines manager at Xodus believes its strong working relationship with Apache is delivering results.
He said: “We are looking forward to supporting the Nevis and Skene developments.
“The new approach to the design of spools is one example of how we are challenging the norm and doing things differently.
“We are involved with Apache in the very early stages of a project and they give us the freedom to think about the challenge so that we can focus on finding the best and most efficient solution.”
Apache entered the North Sea after acquiring the Forties field from BP 2003. It acquired the Beryl, Ness, Nevis, Nevis South, Skene and Buckland fields from ExxonMobil in early 2012 and has an interest in approximately 400,000 acres across the basin.
Patrick Duggan, subsea projects manager for Apache added: “We are pleased to continue to build on our relationship with Xodus to progress our planned infill well programme, which will bring additional North Sea production to our portfolio.”
Xodus will be presenting at Subsea Expo in Aberdeen on 1 February on: ‘Recovery loads of skirted subsea structures on a soft clay seabed.’
Xodus has been undertaking a project on the subject along with funding partner, the Oil and Gas Innovation Centre (Ogic), and academic partner the University of Dundee.
The first phase of modelling testing has recently been completed with a second phase to be completed this year.
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