Oceaneering and Aquaterra Energy ink decommissioning collaboration

NORWICH, UK - Aquaterra Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding with Oceaneering to offer complete decommissioning and late life solution packages to the North Sea oil and gas industry.

Under the agreement, the companies will offer tooling and services in four distinct areas: platform well abandonment, subsea well abandonment, topside and jacket removals and subsea removals. Oceaneering will bring an expansive tooling portfolio and track-record in cutting, severance and dredging to the partnership. Aquaterra Energy will complement this by drawing on its intelligent engineering and extensive project management expertise, together with its own equipment inventory, to support projects.

James Larnder, managing director at Aquaterra Energy said: “This collaboration with Oceaneering has been driven by a customer need for more complete solution players in the market. It’s not hard to see why: more than £15.2bn will be spent on decom in the UKCS over the next decade, with 2379 wells expected to be decommissioned in the North Sea over the next ten years. We’re ready to tackle this challenge alongside Oceaneering and offer a seamless solution to clients.”

Leigh Martin, senior manager for UK, Europe, Africa at Oceaneering comments, “Partnering with Aquaterra Energy in the decommissioning sector, offers the market a trusted established alternative, that provides superior value supported from local facilities.”

With an initial focus on the Southern North Sea, the companies will utilize Aquaterra Energy’s Great Yarmouth facilities to ensure rapid deployment of technology and personnel offshore. Aquaterra Energy is also developing a new decommissioning and late life conductor retrieval system to bolster the combined offering, which is due to be ready for deployment in mid-2020.

Larnder comments, “We’re really proud to be making this strategic move for our business with Oceaneering by our side and expect this to catapult us forward in 2020.”