Expro, a leading international oilfield service company, announced today that it has been awarded a surface testing and subsea landing string service contract from EnCana Corporation for work offshore Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The six-month contract will provide support for the construction of four development wells in the Deep Panuke field and includes the provision of surface well test and landing string equipment and related support services.

The preparatory work has been completed and the equipment has been delivered to Nova Scotia for deployment to the field once operations commence using the jack-up rig Rowan Gorilla III.

A 10K landing string has been custom-designed to facilitate operations from a jack-up rig involving subsea completions. The system will allow safe access to the wells and the execution of the numerous tasks involved with completion operations including the landing and testing of the completion, wireline operations, perforating and clean-up of the well once the completion assembly has been installed.

A package of well test equipment has been custom configured to allow for the safe clean-up and production testing of the wells in order to measure their deliverability and condition them prior to handing them over to production operations.

Additional ancillary equipment required for the operation of the well test package is also being supplied to offer comprehensive support for this aspect of the operations.

The Deep Panuke gas field is located on the Scotian Shelf, 250km southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The field is currently under development by EnCana and the wells tap into the natural gas reservoirs in the carbonate reef located underneath the original Cohasset-Panuke oil field that marked Canada's first offshore project.

Brett Lestrange, Senior Vice President – North America Offshore, said: “This contract is a testament to Expro’s leadership position in the testing market offshore Eastern Canada. In North America, we are more diverse than anywhere else in the world and this is an excellent opportunity to showcase our full portfolio of services and expertise in the subsea market. Deep Panuke will help us strengthen our position as a global leader.”