Well decommissioning using BHGE's subsea wellhead terminator
Master thesis
Date
2019-06Metadata
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- Studentoppgaver (TN-ISØP) [1410]
Abstract
The world’s portfolio of oil and gas wells are ageing. Plug and abandonment is the final and inevitable stage of every well. As a result, decommissioning is set to grow steadily in the coming years, as more and more wells are reaching the end of their life cycle. This forces the oil and gas industry stakeholders to increase their attention toward decommissioning activities. Well decommissioning is associated with high expenditure where taxpayers are on the hook for as much as 50% to 80% of these expenditures. Operators are looking for cost-efficient technology and equipment to plug and abandon their wells. Drill rigs’ daily rental rates are the highest cost associated with well decommissioning; therefore, an increasing number of operations have been moved to vessels with considerably lower day rates.
Subsea wellhead terminator is an ongoing project in BHGE, which aims to transfer a field proven rig-based technology over to rigless.
This thesis’s main contribution is to investigate the business potential for the subsea wellhead terminator. We have estimated demand on the number of subsea wellheads to be plugged and abandon on different continental shelves. The calculated cost of developing and testing the project is less than 1 MNOK. To evaluate the market, a competitor analysis of other large oilfield service companies and how they position towards future well decommissioning activity has been conducted.
Description
Master's thesis in Industrial economics