DeepOcean has completed subsea decommissioning work at Spirit Energy’s Seven Seas and Grove West fields in the southern UK North Sea, including recovery of a wellhead protection structure and disconnection of subsea infrastructure using proprietary tooling developed in-house.
British Petroleum (bp) is in talks with Ithaca Energy, a North Sea oil and gas operator and producer, regarding the sale of its UK North Sea assets in a deal worth nearly $2.69 billion, according to Reuters.While negotiations failed to reach a final agreement in recent weeks, the company continues to explore other options for the assets and could pursue a transaction with other interested parties.
Equinor is preparing to begin drilling operations for the Rosebank field development west of Shetland, marking a key milestone for one of the UK Continental Shelf’s largest undeveloped oil and gas projects.
Trump, fresh from a state visit to the UK, warned that excessive taxation and regulatory hurdles have all but shut down new North Sea development. “There’s tremendous oil that hasn’t been found in the North Sea,” he said. “They essentially closed it by making it so highly taxed that no developer, no oil company, can go there.”
Petrofac has extended its long-running partnership with Ithaca Energy, winning a two-year, $50 million contract renewal to provide integrated services across the operator’s UK North Sea portfolio.
The combined entity will be owned by Repsol E&P Group (45%) and NEO UK (55%) and is positioned to become one of the largest producers in the UK Continental Shelf with output of approximately 130,000 boepd in 2025, according to the companies’ projections.
Halliburton will provide subsurface technology, drilling and completion services for producing assets, as well as digital solutions for new developments. The company will deliver a rigless intervention framework for well construction and production, as well as support for plug and abandonment (P&A) operations.
The Repsol-NEO statement added, “Aligned with market standards in the UKCS, Repsol E&P will retain a [decommissioning] funding commitment up to a nominal amount of $1.8 billion, representing approximately 40 percent of the decom liabilities related to its legacy assets. Repsol E&P will continue to provide decommissioning security for existing Repsol E&P legacy assets”.
SLB (NYSE: SLB) today announced the award of an integrated engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract by bp to its OneSubsea™ joint venture and Subsea7 for the Murlach development (formerly Skua field), 240 kilometers east of Aberdeen in the UK North Sea.
Fossil fuels will remain part of the energy mix for decades to come – if we don’t extract our own resources from the North Sea, our loss will be other polluters’ gain, says Andy Mayer