Coretrax, a wellbore clean up and abandonment specialist, has completed a three-year decommissioning contract with operator Hess Corporation for the first designated abandonment campaign of its kind.

The project began in 2012, involving 30 well abandonments at the FFFA and IVRR fields in the UK North Sea.

As part of this abandonment campaign, Coretrax successfully ran 45 bridge plugs and cement retainers, including some with a drillable brush. Due to extensive section milling operations required on the project, Coretrax provided its BOP cleaning and swarf recovery string to remove swarf from ram cavities and protect the blow out preventer (BOP). In some cases up to 40kg of swarf was recovered per run.

John Fraser, global business development director of Coretrax, said: “At a time when decommissioning is climbing the agenda within the oil and gas industry, we really valued the opportunity to be part of this successful collaboration with Hess and its contracted partners.

“As part of the project we ran the blow out preventer magnet and jetting sub up to three times after over 30 milling operations and there was virtually no swarf within the cavities, which gave the entire team the confidence to progress to the next stage immediately. Our products were highly successful, and none of our cement plugs had to be re-set.

“As abandonment continues to be a costly and lengthy process, the utilisation of products that offer cost and time efficiency as well as safety benefits, are imperative for efficient and effective decommissioning operations. We are proud to have achieved real success for our client. These results are a real testament to our products, services and team. I believe this project will lead the way for future decommissioning and abandonment projects in the North Sea and beyond.”

Image: Coretrax