Marine Subsea's flagship vessel Sarah has travelled from West Africa to Aberdeen to begin a series of decommissioning contracts in the North Sea.
The £2 million multi-client well abandonment programme will see the specialist light well intervention vessel plug and abandon a total of five subsea wells.
The contracts are with a number of oil and gas operators including DNO, Bayerngas UK and Tullow.
The 8400 tonne Sarah arrived into Aberdeen Harbour on the evening of Wednesday 29 July and will set sail today (Friday 30 July) to begin the contract. Marine Subsea gave a tour of the 120 metre vessel to Brian Nixon, Chief Executive of Decom North Sea, the industry forum set up to support the decommissioning supply chain.
Mr Nixon welcomed the significant contract for the region saying: 'We are working closely with operators and the supply chain to encourage the packaging of projects, so it is great to see the benefits Marine Subsea UK is delivering in its multi-client approach to well abandonment. Decommissioning North Sea oil and gas facilities in the UK Continental Shelf is projected to cost between £24 - £30 billion between 2010 and 2040 and we are keen to ensure investment is returned to the economy in this way.'
Marine Subsea UK is leading the project to perforate, cement and carry out abrasive severing and recovery of the wells. The company will also be responsible for the recovery and disposal of residual oil-based muds.
The Sarah is an Ulstein SX121 DP3 (dynamic positioning) vessel that is capable of operating in depths of 3,000 metres. The main features include a tower, main crane, helideck and two heavy duty workclass ROVs. She travelled from West Africa where she is on a flexible ten year contract with oil operator Sonangol via Spain, where she had carried a short subsea construction project for Repsol.
Bruce Cowie, Project Manager for Marine Subsea said that a multi-client approach worked well in driving down the costs of decommissioning. He added: 'Sarah offers a top quality safe and efficient service for well abandonment programmes and we are pleased that our whole fleet of vessels is currently in demand at home and overseas. We are well positioned to support the increase in decommissioning activity forecast for the North Sea and in other oil and gas fields globally. Our safety track record was recognised recently with a British Council International Safety Award.'
Marine Subsea UK is based at Regent Centre at Aberdeen Harbour and employs 30 people.
It is part of the Marine Subsea group which is headquartered in Oslo, with operations in Aberdeen, Angola, Nigeria and Cyprus. Established in 2006, the company operates in three main industry areas - subsea construction and well intervention, offshore support and charter and logistics.
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