How Equinor & Baker Hughes will Plug Norwegian Wells
Equinor has made announcements on well plugging on the Norwegian continental shelf.
Framework agreements for plugging services have been won by Baker Hughes Norge and Archer Oiltools.
This includes signing an agreement with Baker Hughes to establish a Centre of Excellence for plug and abandonment work in the North Sea.
Island Drilling Company has been awarded a three-year well plugging contract on Equinor-operated fields on the Norwegian continental shelf.
Mette Ottøy, Equinor’s Chief Procurement Officer, says: “Through these contracts the suppliers are involved at an early stage and get a greater responsibility for planning the plugging operations, closely monitored by Equinor, who has the overall responsibility.
“We facilitate the industrialisation of safe and efficient plugging operations, ensuring continuous improvements together.
“This is about ensuring quality and reducing costs for work that will gradually increase on the NCS in the future.”
What is the Centre of Excellence?
The centre will be based within Baker Hughes operations in Bergen and Stavanger in Norway.
It is set to house project managers and engineers who will drive innovation in the field.
The centre will also support the framework agreement between Baker Hughes Norge and Equinor for plugging services.
Baker Hughes’ experts will aim to ensure the most economical and reliable solutions are implemented to abandon each well responsibly.
This will help to ensure Equinor can maximise the value of its assets and allocate more resources to exploration and discovery in the future.
Island Drilling Company’s mobile rig
Equinor’s contract with Island Drilling Company is worth an estimated US$330m and carries five-year options.
The company will be well plugging on Equinor operated fields on the Norwegian continental shelf using the Island Innovator semi-submersible mobile rig designed specially for well plugging.
The project is scheduled to start in early 2026 and includes mobilisation, planned upgrading and certain integrated drilling services.
Island Innovator is planned to permanently plug 15 to 20 wells annually for a total of nine licences.
Wells being plugged include those at Heidrun, Snorre and Norne.
“We will drill 600 improved oil recovery wells and about 250 exploration wells to maintain our production on the NCS towards 2035,” says Erik Kirkemo, Equinor’s Senior Vice President for Drilling and Well.
“At the same time, many wells will be permanently securely plugged. This rig provides us with a tool specially designed for plugging operations.
“The initial plan is a three-year work programme, but we do not rule out utilising the rig for operations also in the longer term.”
Equinor’s operations on the Norwegian continental shelf
Currently, Equinor operates more than 1,400 production and injection wells on the Norwegian continental shelf.
The company says it aims to ensure optimal resource exploitation and productive life from each well and continuously tries to extend the productive life of fields on stream.
As far as possible, old wells are reused through slot recovery – plugging part of the well before drilling new targets from the existing wellhead.
This increases production and saves drilling costs.
Up to 2030, Equinor says it plans to permanently plug about 80 subsea wells using mobile rigs and 90 platform wells.
Around 45 wells are also plugged annually for reuse, and the company expects a larger wave of permanent plugging from 2035 to 2045.
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