Nexen Takes COSL Rig for UK Decom Jobs
Tuesday 4 July 2017
Rig owner COSL Drilling Europe has secured a deal from Nexen Petroleum UK to decommission a raft of wells across two fields in the UK North Sea.
Chinese-owned player Nexen has taken the semi-submersible COSL Pioneer for the plug-and-abandon work on 13 wells across the Blackbird and Ettrick fields.
The one-year contract is set to begin in the first quarter when the unit will mobilise from a yard in Norway.
In January Nexen submitted decommissioning plans for the oilfields in the Outer Moray Firth. Ettrick and Blackbird are located in blocks 20/2a and 20/3a, respectively, in approximately 115 metres of water.
The work will involve decommissioning 13 wells, 14 flowlines and umbilicals, and subsea structures.
The company, a subsidiary of the Chinese oil company China National Offshore Oil Corporation, confirmed last year it was planning to start decommissioning work at the fields, after it terminated the contract for the Aoka Mizu floating production, storage and offloading vessel, which the fields were tied back to.
The FPSO, operated by Bluewater, was disconnected and removed from the field in August.