Workover rig operation on a mature North Sea platform - a partnership for success

An economic appraisal and engineering analysis identified both the profitability and technical feasibility of installing a dedicated workover rig, in addition to the existing drilling rig, on a mature North Sea platform. The paper discusses the formation of an alliance between a drilling contractor and a well services contractor to provide the expertise necessary to plan and execute workover operations. The paper expands on the following integral concepts included in the contract: (1) Integration of planning and operations, utilizing the combined resources and experience of both the well services contractor and the drilling contractor. (2) Flexible manning levels, thus allowing up and down manning as required for various activities associated with workover operations. (3) Multi-skilling of the workover rig crews to minimise the required manpower with training under the guidance of the alliance. (4) Co-operation of subcontractors with the concept of multi-skilling. (5) The responsibilities and indemnities provisions in the subcontracts to reflect as closely as possible the responsibilities and indemnities provisions in the contract with the operator and main contractor. The resulting operating contract exemplifies the optimization of resources available from a partnering agreement between contractors and operators, and illustrates the utility of clearly allocating the risk between themore » parties. Success of the concepts integrated in the contract, particularly with respect to the value of partnering agreements between contractors and operators, may result in similar future agreements for managing the operator`s assets.« less