Field services companies supply everything from pipeline integrity management services to software in order to maximise production from assets. Sean Ottewell reports.
Wood Group Integrity Management (WGIM), part of Wood Group Kenny, has been awarded a significant contract by CNR International (UK) Limited (CNRI) to provide pipeline integrity management and support services for CNRI's UK continental shelf assets which include Ninian, Lyell, Tiffany, Toni, Thelma and Murchison. The contract will initially run for three years with options for the term to extend.
The scope of the contract encompasses 37 major pipelines, in addition to support for the Banff and Kyle fields. WGIM's engineers will provide integrity management services, including software solutions and multi-disciplined ad-hoc support for all of the subsea assets.
Wood Group Kenny's subsea and pipeline business JP Kenny has been awarded a US$7.5 million (EUR5.8 million) contract by Apache North Sea to provide subsea engineering services. The contract runs initially for three years with further options beyond this timescale.
The agreement covers all of Apache's North Sea assets, including the Forties complex and the recently acquired Beryl complex. JP Kenny has in place a dedicated core team to support the various Apache projects. Multi-discipline teams will be available to support the diverse scopes of work to be executed, with an emphasis on responding to customer lead times while delivering quality services.[Page Break]
Fabrication services
In another move, Wood Group has agreed to acquire Mitchell's Oil Field Services, a provider of maintenance, installation and fabrication services in the oil-rich Bakken shale region for an initial consideration of US$135 million (EUR104 million).
Mitchell's will operate within Wood Group PSN, and will complement the division's existing operations and maintenance, construction supervision and survey services in the region. Mitchell's will continue to be led by the existing management team.
Landmark Software and Services, a Halliburton business, has acquired Petris Technology, a leading supplier of data-management and integration solutions to the global energy industry.
Halliburton says the acquisition will allow it to deliver unrivalled access to customers' reservoir and well technical data, empowering their decision-making processes by providing them with mission-critical data, where and when they need it.[Page Break]
Integrated solutions
The acquisition comprises all of Petris' integrated solutions, including the PetrisWINDS products, such as Recall Applications, Recall Data Management, DataVera, Enterprise, DrillNET, and Operations Management Suite - which will become available to Halliburton's clients as a part of the DecisionSpace portfolio. The DecisionSpace environment has been designed to drive collaboration and efficient decision-making by ensuring these multiple sources of highly technical data are readily accessible across a customer's full range of upstream business operations.
Meanwhile another Halliburton company, Boots & Coots, has enhanced its pressure control offerings with the acquisition of Old School Services (OSS). This acquisition gives Halliburton the resources to provide operators with the through-tubing equipment required to resolve production challenges faced by the growing unconventionals, horizontal drilling and multistage completions markets.[Page Break]
Through-tubing
Trough-tubing - or 'thru-tubing' - equipment and services are vital to the well completion process. They provide methods for removing objects or debris from the wellbore to enable well production, and they offer innovative solutions that allow increased operating depths in the well. OSS has a broad selection of speciality tools for fishing, milling, cleanout, and tubing-conveyed perforating services that complement the well intervention services provided by Boots & Coots.
In a third move, Halliburton has opened three new remote operations command and control (ROCC) centres in the USA to help operators keep pace with the rapid growth and stringent requirements of fracturing operations.
The new centres, serving operations in North Dakota, the mid-continent region, and the south Texas and southeast Texas/Louisiana areas, have a number of specific functions: to support real-time decision-making on immediate well and treatment conditions; to enhance technical oversight; to reduce health, safety and environment (HSE) exposure by reducing the number of personnel travelling and the number of personnel required at the wellsite; promote knowledge transfer; and to drive excellence in service quality.
In other news Petrofac has confirmed that Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has declared that it is the selected bidder for the integrated production service contract to develop the Arenque contract area, offshore Mexico.
The Arenque contract area is situated in the Gulf of Mexico, 30 km from the city of Tampico. The Arenque field, which is currently producing around 5000 bbl/d, has initial oil in place of approximately 1.2 billion barrels with a current recovery factor of around 11 per cent. Under the contract, which runs for 30 years, Petrofac plans to improve the recovery factor and increase production from the core area of the field using horizontal wells and secondary recovery techniques (Fig. 1).[Page Break]
Recovery mechanism
In addition there is considerable upside potential in the rest of the block. Petrofac will receive a tariff of US$7.90 (EUR6.10) for each barrel of incremental production and will be reimbursed for 75 per cent of its development expenditure through a cost recovery mechanism. In the first two years, Petrofac will commit approximately US$50 million (EUR38 million) in capital expenditure.
This is the fourth integrated production service contract that Petrofac has been awarded in Mexico since August 2011. The other contracts are for the Magallanes and Santuario fields in Tabasco State, and the Pánuco field in Veracruz State.[Page Break]
Lamprell Expands in Saudi Arabia
Engineering and contracting services supplier Lamprell has signed a joint venture agreement with Shoaibi Group, a Saudi industry and energy services provider, and Al Yusr Townsend and Bottum (AYTB), a Saudi integrated industrial, technical and logistical services provider, to form Lamprell Arabia.
The joint venture, which will be based in Al Khobar in the oil rich Eastern province of Saudi Arabia, intends to establish a presence for new build fabrication, refurbishment and repair of land drilling rigs in Saudi Arabia, by combining Lamprell's expertise in this sector and Shoaibi Group's strong experience in the Saudi onshore and offshore market and AYTB's operational support facilities and multi-disciplinary workforce.
Lamprell Arabia will offer new build fabrication, refurbishment and repair of Saudi land rigs, ancillary fabrication for onshore assets and services on Saudi offshore rigs, with the intention of opening a local workshop in the recently built Shoaibi Group oil and gas park, located in the industrial village zone in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
Shoaibi group director Khalid Suhayl Al Shoaibi said: "This is a landmark joint venture for the Shoaibi Group and we are all extremely pleased to enter into this joint venture agreement with Lamprell and AYTB. This joint venture builds on the strengths of the three companies to expand Lamprell's operations in Saudi Arabia and will further reinforce Shoaibi Group's market positions across our engineering and contracting services to the Saudi upstream industry. Saudi Arabia has an estimated 98 onshore drilling rigs in place and there is a rising demand for advanced drilling equipment and oilfield services in the upstream market, which justifies Lamprell's expansion into market at this time."
