OIL and gas decommissioning specialist Well-Safe Solutions has won a second North Sea contract in quick succession as growing numbers of fields in the area reach the end of their economic lives.
Aberdeen-based Well-Safe has been engaged to supply a rig for use in decommissioning work on 14 wells on the Banff and Kyle fields east of Aberdeen. The fields are operated by Canadian Natural Resources.
The financial value of the contract was not disclosed.
However Well-Safe Solutions' chief executive Phil Milton underlined the commercial appeal of the work concerned.
READ MORE: SNP Government risking North Sea investment
Last month the company won a contract from Repsol Sinopec to decommission 14 wells on the Buchan and Hannay fields north east of Aberdeen.
Mr Milton noted: “The schedule control provided as part of the Repsol Sinopec contract enables Well-Safe to complete the Banff & Kyle wells during 2022, before returning to Repsol Sinopec with the dive system... allowing the remaining wells to be completed as part of a continuous campaign.”
The two contracts will prove work for around 120 people.
Well-Safe Solutions was founded in 2017 by oil services entrepreneurs who saw the potential to develop a big decommissioning business in the North Sea, which is regarded as a mature basin. The area contains hundreds of wells along with many platforms and associated pipelines.
The founders included the company's chairman, Alasdair Locke, who made around £120m when the Abbot drilling operation he built was sold to private equity group First Reserve for £906m in 2007.
READ MORE: Costs of North Sea tax breaks laid bare as Shell nets $99m refund
In July the Oil and Gas Authority forecast that the cost of decommissioning offshore oil and gas infrastructure on the United Kingdom Continental Shelf would total £46bn.
The average subsea well costs around £7.3m to decommission.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here