NPD report recommends unmanned wellhead platforms

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate yesterday released the study they commissioned from Ramboll Oil and Gas into the advantages and disadvantages of unmanned wellhead platforms. We were pleased to see the results of the study and welcome the conclusion that unmanned platforms may provide efficient development solutions in terms of cost and production for shallower water developments on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS).

As we outlined in our original post last month, with unmanned wellhead platforms under consideration for a number of licences in the NCS, the objective of the study was to identify “cost and production efficient development concepts with the same functionality and robustness as subsea developments”.

Ramboll performed a high level mapping of types of unmanned wellhead platforms installed worldwide and a more detailed assessment of the unmanned wellhead platforms installed in the North Sea. Based on the characteristics of the platforms, they were grouped into 5 types. These range from Type 0 with helideck, fire water system, various process equipment, crane and automated to allow remote operation for typically 1-5 weeks, to Type 4 super minimalistic platforms with typically only one well (max. two) on one small deck with the well connected directly to pipeline.

Having analysed the distribution of thousands of normally unattended installations worldwide the study reports that 590 such platforms are operating in the UKCS, representing 25% of the total number of installations. Whilst there are only 5 normally unmanned platforms currently in the NCS, the report explains the main reasons for this are the size of the fields, distance to infrastructure, water depth and, notably, the regulatory requirements in Norway, which they return to in their conclusions.

The report goes on to outline both the operation and maintenance philosophies for these platforms and experience gained from those in production, as well as highlighting the differences between the various regulatory frameworks worldwide. Most notably the report explains that the Norwegian regulations were developed for the large integrated production platforms which were favoured for the huge, early discoveries. These regulations are inappropriate for normally unmanned platforms and represent an unnecessary hurdle for such developments.

The study concludes that unmanned wellhead platforms can be cost- and production-effective development concepts for the shallower part of the Norwegian Continental Shelf, and recommends the development of guidelines and/or a NORSOK standard that provides an approach to the design of unmanned platforms for the NCS ahead of further developments.

We will follow this post with a further note looking at these in more detail and explaining how the approach we are taking to our solutions correlates to the findings.

Source: Norwegian Petroleum Directorate