Aker Solutions Develops Faster Offshore Well Workover System

Norwegian engineering company Aker Solutions has said it has developed a modified workover system that enables faster and more cost-effective planned interventions. The concept will first be applied on Equinor’s Visund field in the North Sea, offshore Norway.

Workover systems enable well access for subsea installation and completion, diagnostics, maintenance, repairs, enhanced production and finally plugging and abandonment.

The operational concept entails delivering Aker Solutions’ multiWOS system by vessel and landing the system on either a subsea platform or a well. The vessel then extracts, and the rig picks up the stack and starts the intervention campaign.

The mobilization of the workover system can be executed well in advance of the intervention activities, hence the operator will have more flexibility both before and after operations, as the system can be parked subsea, Aker Solutions explained.

The main advantage with this concept compared to the more traditional approach is that the system is kept subsea and not taken onboard the rig, the company said. 

"This project has been a joint collaboration between Equinor and Aker Solutions from the start. The new intervention concept is faster, more cost effective and safer than traditional workover systems," said Andreas Kraabøl, VP Subsea Lifecycle Services, Norway.

The system and associated equipment will be modified and delivered in the spring of 2021 to perform intervention operations on Visund.

The Visund field northeast of Gullfaks has a water depth of 335 meters and 23 Aker Solutions subsea trees installed. Interventions will play an increasingly important role operationally in the future for Visund to increase oil recovery, Aker Solutions said.