Claxton, a leading supplier of engineering and services for shallow-water, jackup-depth markets in subsea services group Acteon, has won a multimillion-dollar contract to provide high-pressure riser and abrasive jet cutting services to the Deep Panuke decommissioning project offshore Canada. The gas field is about 250 km (155 miles) southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the Scotian Shelf. Deep Panuke field ceased production in May 2018 and the operator has begun planning facility and well decommissioning activities.

For this major project, Claxton is supplying a high-pressure subsea drilling riser system with associated services in a shallow-water programme to connect the surface blowout preventer stack on the rig with subsea horizontal trees. Claxton’s SABRE™ subsea abrasive jet cutting system will then perform well severance 3 m below the mudline. The work will be undertaken on five subsea wells from the harsh environment offshore, jackup drilling rig Noble Regina Allen, which has been engaged by the project operator.

“Claxton provides services across the life of field and is uniquely placed to supply the client with high-pressure rental risers and abrasive cutting equipment and services in-house without relying on third-party vendors or suppliers,” said Matthew Marcantonio, head of decommissioning, Claxton. “We will make significant project savings by using a single crew of multiskilled personnel from Claxton’s pool of experienced offshore technicians for both scopes, rather than dedicated crews for each phase. This will reduce the number of places needed on board and provide significant personnel and mobilisation cost savings.”

The well plug-and-abandonment programme is expected to start in January 2020. The running, operation and pulling of the riser on each well will take about 25 days and will be followed by the cutting phase. The campaign is expected to finish in mid-July 2020.

“It is our belief that Claxton’s bespoke supply offering, world-class in-house technical support and knowledge, and genuine partnership approach have enabled us to present this innovative and safe technical solution,” Marcantonio continued. “This is the biggest scope of work and the highest value project Claxton has won in Canada. We have received more enquiries from operators in Canada since this breakthrough contract award that will expand our portfolio of work in the region.”

About Claxton

With over 25 years’ of experience in the North Sea and a growing catalogue of success in Norway and the Middle- and Far East, Claxton has a proven ability to provide engineering and services that match, and often exceed, those of much larger competitors.