Sapura Executes Prelude Well Intervention

Sapura Energy Berhad (SEB)’s wholly-owned Australian subsidiary, Sapura Energy Australia has completed the Shell Prelude light well intervention (LWI) campaign – plug removal activity for in the Browse Basin, north of Broome, Western Australia.

The campaign, completed on June 16 2017, was part of the Shell Prelude FLNG project.

Awarded in June 2016, the campaign marked the first official project for Shell in Australia and is the first of the 5-year call-off service agreement to supply an integrated service solution for LWI equipment and services.

The LWI work involved the retrieval of eight suspension plugs from seven wells in the Prelude field and was performed by the Sapura Constructor, using a riserless light well intervention system (RLWI) including the recently upgraded subsea intervention device and intervention compensation system. The RLWI system enables work to be performed on subsea wells without the use of a conventional drill rig..

The scope of the LWI work was also executed in collaboration with Total Marine Technology (TMT), another Australian subsidiary of SEB. TMT was responsible for managing the equipment used for the project as well as upgrading the equipment in compliance with Shell specifications, the ISO, API and NORSOK 10D standards.

Under the same 5-year call-off agreement, Sapura Energy Australia is currently working on Shell Australia’s LWI Campaign – wellhead retrieval activity which involves the severance and retrieval of seven wellheads. The decommissioning work is being executed with the AXE severance system, a water jet cutting system designed for the environmentally friendly removal of subsea wellheads that removes the need for explosives or rig-based mechanical cutting tools. The project is scheduled for completion in July 2017.