A contract for light well intervention (LWI) with Island Offshore Management and its alliance partners FMC Technologies Inc and Aker Kvaerner Well Services has been expanded by Statoil.
Worth NOK 600 million, this change means that Island Frontier â originally due to be replaced next year April by newbuilding Island Wellserver â will continue under the contract in 2008-09.
âCost-efficient use of LWI will give major savings,â says Tim Dodson, acting executive vice president for Exploration & Production Norway (UPN).
âThis method is an important instrument for achieving our production goal for the Norwegian continental shelf and the target of a 55% recovery factor on subsea-produced fields.â
Island Frontier and Island Wellserver are due to provide services in parallel on Statoil-operated licences in the Tampen area of the North Sea and Halten/Nordland in the Norwegian Sea.
LWI is a wireline-based system for workovers in subsea-completed wells, and represents an important tool for Statoil in improving recovery from subsea wells.
Unlike well intervention from a drilling rig, LWI does not require installation of a riser. A ship is also much easier to move than a moored rig.