StatoilHydro: Technology developments paying off
Island Wellserver is one of two vessels StatoilHydro is using for light well intervention. Photo: Geir Gravdal, StatoiHydro.
Better drilling methods are making the single biggest contribution to improving recovery from Norway’s offshore fields. A number of solutions adopted by StatoilHydro this year are already yielding good results, writes Inger Ueland for StatoilHydro.com
StatoilHydro has made a substantial commitment to research and technology development in order to improve its drilling and well operations.
“Downhole intervention and sidetracks from existing wells are the most effective ways of recovering more oil and gas from subsea fields,” says head of subsea technology, Øystein A. Håland. “Adopting new solutions in these areas also yields substantial reductions in operating costs,” he explains.
A growing number of discoveries on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) are being developed with subsea installations. At the same time, production is declining from mature fields. Wells need workovers to maintain their output by removing deposits and halting water intrusion. But conventional jobs of this kind have been expensive on subsea developments.
StatoilHydro has now adopted Light Well Intervention (LWI) Vessels on a large scale, with two such ships in operation all year round on the NCS. Compared with the use of traditional drilling rigs, these units cut the cost of well intervention work for the group by 50-70%.
Read more on StatoilHydro.com
