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and two more for well-stimulation work. backlog of wells that need maintenance earn “three times” what the depressed set the cement,” he says. The Island Van-

A recent new-build PSV was remade a has never been higher. Maintenance has market offers PSVs right now, and de- guard is “cutting wellheads for Maersk.”

W2W. Ulstein says the market for ex- been postponed and is accumulating for coms represents some W2W demand. He admits he sees the “thousands” of

PSV W2Ws is wind and oil and gas, and the future.” “We do the easiest part of decoms. We UK wells (many more than in Norway), the converted vessels joined the Island It doesn’t mean he’s in a hurry to drop set the plug, pull the tubing, maybe cut a and his ships can do two of three types of

Crown as W2W “successes.” decommissioning work. W2W vessels riser, ? ush with hydrogen (peroxide) and well abandonment operation.

W2Ws are also in use for decommis- sioning work in the U.K sector of the

North Sea. “The PSVs that are cold-stacked aren’t coming back,” Ulstein says of the ? eets generally. Meanwhile, none of his own vessels are out of work. His anchor- handler tug supply vessel (AHTS) Island

Valiant is busy in the U.K. sector of the

North Sea, buoyed by the popularity and marketing of well-abandonment partner

Offshore Installation Services (OIS).

They’re hired by Centrica to shut six wells, and OIS is a veteran of 128 com- pleted wells. As with seismic, decom- missioning for OIS has sometimes been “multi-oil-company”.

OIS will use a Suspended Well Aban- donment Tool (SWAT) from Claxton

Engineering Services via the Valiant’s moon pool to set cement plugs in the wellbore and across its casing annuli. A second operation will use a cutting tool to sever and then remove the wellhead.

Recovery “2014 was the best year in history for

Distribution Locations: Fort Wayne, IN ?Belle Chasse, LA ? Wilton, NY ? Cocoa, FL ? Plain, WI | Dealer Locations: Seattle, WA ?Anderson, CA ?Irvine, CA plug-and-abandonment,” said Ulstein. It was timely market help, he says, since

Statoil’s lightwell-intervention cam- paign (LWI) of 2014 “ended on March 2014.” Statoil did not renew and a planned 165 day campaign was also can- celled. The Island Dawn suffered a simi- lar fate when Total terminated. LWI was the business Island Offshore was built on. Ulstein seems almost hurt just say- ing it, and he changes the topic to a large

AHTS with 420 tons worth of Bollard pull that he has available.

“You go where the work is, and where the work will be in 2017, who knows,” he con? des. He also con? des he reads

Rystad Energy’s reports that say the sub- sea services market for which the Island

Constructor and Island Wellserver were built will be near normal by 2018 and recovering by 2017. We leave his of? ce space with the sense that while decom- missioning is the new Eldorado in the

U.K., it’s just a bridge to better times for sophisticated OSVs. Decommissioning on both sides of the North Sea meridian line might be curbed when oil price rises again. “We’re con? dent of higher-exploration rates next year,” said Ulstein, adding that IMR is growing, too, as oil compa- ny maintenance has been on hold. “The www.marinelink.com 101

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