S04 ORA 6 2020 Oil spill_ORA Master Template - 2016 New 10/12/2020 14:25 Page 18
WE LL CONTROL
ISSUE 6 2020 • WWW.OILREVIEWAFRICA.COM
WELLS
UNDER CONTROL International well control expertise is being passed on to a new generation of indigenous players serving Africa’s oil industry. Martin Clark reports. ELL CONTROL IS a fundamental part of oil and gas production world over. From maintaining pressure to underpinning safety, it is the domain of industry big-hitters like Schlumberger and Halliburton, as well as many other smaller and specialist providers. As well as performance, safety and accident prevention remain the highest priorities. Well control is integral in the prevention of blow outs, for instance, one of the deadliest threats facing drillers in the field. The challenges are even greater working offshore, as the tragedy of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blow out in the US Gulf of Mexico highlights. But lessons have been learned, and West Africa’s offshore has thrived in recent years providing a rich stream of work for leading operators in this niche. One of the busiest working off Angola right now is Oceaneering, which is bringing its deepwater well expertise to some of the region’s biggest projects. In June, it announced that its asset integrity group had secured a three-year contract with Cabinda Gulf Oil Company Limited (CABGOC), a Chevron subsidiary, for inspection services on Blocks 0 and 14. It is also currently providing riserless light well intervention
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Employee safety and accident prevention are the top priorities of well control management.
(RLWI) services in Blocks 18 and 31 for BP in support of a multiwell campaign that includes mechanical well interventions, well stimulations, and tree change-outs. Oceaneering is providing personnel, equipment, remotely operated vehicles, survey and communication services, all integrated onto a chartered multi-purpose vessel. Another major player active in Angola is offshore drilling expert, Seadrill. It is Sonadrill joint venture, with state-owned Sonangol, is in the middle of a nine-well contract working from the Libongos drillship. The work, which includes an option for six more wells, runs
through to 2021. These and other companies are helping ambitious indigenous firms to build knowledge in well control and other areas of training. Again, in Angola, Instituto Nacional de Petróleos (INP) is developing vocational programmes to better prepare workers for the oil industry. Several years earlier, INP invested in Drilling Systems’ state-of-the-art drilling and well control simulator technology, including its DrillSIM:5000, DrillSIM:500 and DrillSIM:50. This is used by INP to give its drilling and well control students a taste of what it’s like to work on actual rigs and enhance understanding of drilling
operations and reservoir behaviour. INP has now trained people from all across Africa, enhancing local know-how that is now deployed in the field and nurturing a new generation of skills and talent. Local expertise has enabled indigenous well services firms to grow in some of Africa’s key oil markets, like Nigeria. That includes the likes of Petron Drilling, Maerlin Limited, Cardinal Drilling, Century Group and Warri-based Weafri Well Services. Increasingly, it will be expertise from these and similar firms that will be responsible for well control services as Africa’s oil and gas industry matures.
