Neptune Energy has awarded Well-Safe Solutions a contract for a major North Sea decommissioning campaign spanning the UK and Netherlands.
The $30 million (£26m) decom award covers more than 20 wells across eight Dutch and UK North Sea fields.
Neptune said the contract was the first “multi-region, multi-well decommissioning campaign” it had ever awarded to a single rig contractor, and that it would “significantly reduce” the time and costs associated with the work.
The Well-Safe Protector jack-up rig will carry out the plug and abandonment (P&A) of at least four subsea and 17 platform wells in Dutch and UK waters.
The Well-Safe Protector is scheduled to mobilise in Q1 2023 to the Dutch and UK sectors for P&A operations in fields including D18a-A, G14-B, K12-S2, L10-S2 and K9c-A in the Netherlands and the Neptune-operated Minke and Orca fields, the operator confirmed.
Neptune has the option to extend the one-year contract by a further two years, via eight three-month extensions.
Neptune Energy managing director for the Netherlands, Lex de Groot, said: “Safely decommissioning assets at the end of their economic producing lives is an important part of our work. We plug and abandon the wells, taking everything with us and leaving the seabed in a clean state. That is our responsibility and we don’t take it lightly.
“Working with a single rig contractor for this extensive, cross-border decommissioning campaign is an innovative way reduce time and costs.”
Rig manager for the Protector, Duncan Morison, added: “The Well-Safe Protector boasts a large volume of deck space for tubing, casing and conductor recovery, allowing effective batch operations and will help Neptune Energy realise considerable operational savings.”
The award is the latest success for Aberdeen-headquartered Well-Safe, which celebrated its fifth anniversary at the beginning of August.
The firm has doubled its office footprint, taking over the second floor of its building based in Cove, and is on track to have more than 300 staff by the end of its financial year.
It also follows close on the heels of a 14-well contract for its newly acquired rig, the Well-Safe Defender.
It will mark a first campaign for the Defender under its new guise, following its acquisition from Awilco Drilling, with work expected to get underway in March 2023.
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