EDITORIAL COMMENT
Growth expected in well intervention market
Skandi Aker well intervention offshore construction vessel designed and built by STX Europe for DOF ASA (Credit: STX Europe).
and a large number of newbuild subsea support vessels are entering the market the attention turns to well intervention and its part to play in the offshore scene. With a pressing need to increase oil
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recovery targets for subsea completed fields from offshore operators and a definite trend for deepwater exploration, the intervention market has the potential to become huge in the years to come with a substantial mass of subsea wells in existence. Te base of subsea production wells
has been growing dramatically since their first use in the 1960s. Historically, the key regional areas of subsea activity have been the North Sea, West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil has seen a healthy spurt in deepwater offshore activity. Despite the obvious benefits to an
operator’s increased recovery rate and lower capital expenditure, the interven- tion market has yet to, until now, properly take off. Technical limitations of equipment currently used in the market plays a part in the slow growth that subsea well intervention has seen, but this will change as more emphasis is placed on this sector. Light well intervention using monohull
vessels, rather than expensive offshore drilling rigs is gaining momentum. It is understood that there are around 2600 subsea wells in existence across the globe. More than 400 of these are found in Norwegian/North Sea
t a time when the crude oil price is reaching a new high (around US$83/bbl at the time of writing)
waters and this is expected to grow signifi- cantly in the next decade. In fact leading energy consultancy firms Infield Systems and Douglas Westwood predict that the number will grow to more than 5500 by the end of 2010. With the current pressure on explora-
tion results and the increased value of production from high oil prices, this type of intervention can be very attractive in more mature subsea regions. Historically, the costs of rig mobilisation coupled with short duration operations have dampened the activity. A faster, more easily deployed, dynamically positioned (DP) vessel that does not require anchor handling vessels during installation and demobilisation and does not require a riser to be run and tested offers a signifi- cant cost saving to the operator. Tese demands push well intervention
operators to develop new technologies to improve access to subsea wells, creating a demand for more efficient subsea well intervention systems, including riserless light well intervention (RLWI) units. While not appropriate for deepwa- ter exploration, RLWI units are ideal for repair, scale removal, installation, and manipulation of some equipment, along with fluid sampling, chemical treatment and well abandonment, among other services. In the past, this work was performed by
semisubmersible drilling rigs. However, developments in dynamic positioning systems, remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs), and other specialised
Offshore Marine Technology 3rd Quarter 2010
onboard systems allow well intervention equipment to be placed on monohull units that can move quickly from one well to the next to help reduce chartering costs and to improve well recovery rates by up to 50%. Riser well intervention units are still preferred for some work and in water depths up to 500m, but new composites in development for wire lines may soon allow RLWI units to work in deeper waters. Adding to that, leading class
society Det Norske Veritas (DNV) has established a well intervention unit class notation. Based on experience gained by developing these rules, DNV released an additional, optional, notation known as WELL Intervention in October 2009. To date DNV has issued certification
for six well intervention vessels, includ- ing four optional WELL notations, for a number of subsea service companies. One early adopter of the new DNV
rules was Aker Oilfield Services. The company has a newbuild program to provide subsea intervention, light drilling, and riser and riserless well intervention services. Alf Kristensen, manager engineering
projects at Aker Oilfield Services, said the company has one well intervention unit classed by DNV – the newbuild Skandi Aker. “While there are many components
to winning a contract, we felt the DNV notations gave us an advantage over competing oilfield services companies,” said Kristensen. OMT
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