Sapura Energy’s unit completes subsea oil wells job in Australia

PETALING JAYA: Sapura Energy Bhd’s (SEB) wholly-owned Australian unit Sapura Energy Australia Pty Ltd has completed the Shell Prelude Light Well Intervention (LWI) Campaign-Plug Removal Activity for Shell Australia Pty Ltd in Western Australia in the Browse Basin in Western Australia.

In a statement today, SEB said the campaign was part of the Shell Prelude Floating Liquefied Natural Gas Project and was completed on June 16. 

Awarded in June 2016, the campaign marks the first official project for Shell in Australia and is the first of the five-year call-off service agreement to supply an integrated service solution for LWI equipment and services enabling cost-effective intervention operations.

SEB said the LWI work involved the retrieval of eight suspension plugs from seven wells in the Prelude field, was performed by SEB’s intervention vessel, Sapura Constructor, which was equipped with the Riserless Light Well Intervention (RLWI) system including the recently upgraded Subsea Intervention Device and Intervention Compensation System.

“The RLWI system enables work to be performed on subsea wells without the use of a conventional drill rig and offers significant cost savings and easier mobilisation compared to a rig-based solution,” it said.

The scope of the LWI work was also executed in collaboration with Total Marine Technology Pty Ltd (TMT), another Australian subsidiary of SEB. 

TMT was responsible for managing the equipment used for the project as well as upgrading the equipment in compliance with the most stringent Shell specifications, the International Standards Organisation (ISO), American Petroleum Institute (API) and NORSOK 10D standards.

Under the same 5-year call-off agreement, Sapura Energy Australia is currently working on Shell Australia’s Light Well Intervention Campaign — Wellhead Retrieval Activity, which involves the severance and retrieval of seven wellheads.

“The decommissioning work is being executed with the AXE severance system, a high-pressure water jet cutting system designed for the environmentally friendly removal of subsea wellheads that removes the need for explosives or rig-based mechanical cutting tools,” SEB said, adding that the project was scheduled for completion in July 2017.