Work to commence on 'milestone' North Sea decommissioning programme

Well management firm Exceed has kicked off a North Sea collaboration with one of the largest decommissioning programmes in recent years.

The firm said the “milestone” well plugging and abandonment (P&A) campaign would be carried out in partnership with Mermaid Subsea Services UK on behalf of four operators.

It is Exceed’s largest vessel-based well P&A campaign to date, while also marking Mermaid’s entry into the North Sea marketplace.

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Due to commence in the third quarter of 2022, the multi-operator campaign is thought to be one of the largest programmes of its type to be undertaken on the UK Continental Shelf for at least a decade, and currently comprises the decommissioning of ten wells across the Northern, Central and Southern areas.

John Anderson, commercial director for Exceed, said: “Our well decommissioning experts have worked on some of the sector’s highest profile abandonment campaigns, and it’s clear to us that this partnership brings something unique to the sector.

“With mobilisation/demobilisation accounting for a third of the total well P&A cost, this approach makes good economic sense, as well as minimising the environmental impact of multiple, separate campaigns.”

Mermaid operations director, Scott Cormack, who brings two decades of decommissioning and well P&A experience to his role, added: “New contracting models are critical to achieving the decommissioning cost reduction target set by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA). However, the NSTA reported in 2021 that these models were yet to become the norm, and that a lack of collaboration was, in part, responsible. Our aim is to help address that situation.”

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