Expro to deploy Subsea Well Access technology for Balmoral decommissioning

Expro has secured a new contract with Harbour Energy for a well abandonment campaign as part of the decommissioning project for the Balmoral area in the UK Continental Shelf.

The multi-year contract, valued at more than $20 million, will utilize Expro’s Subsea Well Access technology with a combination of open-water and in-riser applications deployed from a semisubmersible.

Wells that require abandonment tend to suffer from loading and fatigue issues on the wellhead and Xmas trees. Using a lightweight open-water system will help to mitigate these loading issues during the subsea well access intervention part of the overall abandonment campaign.

Expro’s open-water and in-riser bore selector technology, which eliminates the use of a dual-bore riser for the entire abandonment campaign, is designed to deliver significantly reduced system deployment and retrieval times and with lower maintenance costs.

To overcome key technical requirements from the customer, Expro devised a solution based on a newbuild lightweight intervention system, incorporating its subsea ball valve technologies. Expro’s existing API 17G standard high debris ball valve was recently qualified to provide a single ball cut and seal on coil tubing. This ball valve technology will be repackaged into bespoke open water riser housings to provide the lightweight solution required.

The solution developed for this contract expands Expro’s subsea well access portfolio and allows the company to now supply the client with all the subsea well access tooling required for the abandonment campaign on the Balmoral area, for horizontal and vertical Xmas Trees.