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05 July 2013

Petrofac Delivers Integrated Decom Study for Sasol

Petrofac has provided further evidence of its integrated decommissioning capability by delivering a multi-discipline Asset Retirement Obligation study for Sasol Petroleum International.

The project allows the South African energy and chemical giant to fulfil its statutory obligations under the ‘Sarbanes Oxley’ legislation in the USA by delivering an assessment of the future costs of decommissioning assets on the Pandé and Temané gas fields in south-eastern Mozambique. The two fields - which export gas to South Africa via an 865km pipeline – came on stream in 2004 and are expected to continue to produce for between 20 and 25 years.

The project pulls together conceptual engineering expertise from Petrofac’s Engineering & Consulting Services business unit in Woking, supported by decommissioning experts from Petrofac Offshore Projects & Operations and the Group’s well engineering arm SPD, both based in Aberdeen. The project scope included the costs of decommissioning the central production facility for the two fields; between 40 and 50 wells; and environmental remediation.

Andy Bryson, Facilities Engineering, Sasol Petroleum International said: “We’ve had a good personal working relationship with good communication throughout and I was particularly impressed with the way Petrofac was prepared to work with us to edit the Scope of Work to match our expectations before the job was started.”

Ian Whitehead, Decommissioning Director, Petrofac Offshore Projects & Operations said: “This work reflects our growing capability not just here in Aberdeen but across the Petrofac Group. Our team here in Aberdeen now offers extensive experience gained on major decommissioning projects including Brent Delta and North West Hutton, but with the ability to co-opt additional conceptual and front end engineering, subsea and well engineering expertise from other parts of Petrofac wherever we need it.”

David Heaton, Project Manager, Petrofac Engineering & Consulting Services said: “This has been a successful project with the various Petrofac business units working very effectively together.”

Petrofac recently carried out decommissioning work on behalf of Ithaca Energy on the FPF1 floating production facility, which is now undergoing modifications in Poland ahead of its redeployment on the Greater Stella field in the Central North Sea. This work involved engineering down and the removal and disposal of more than 200 tonnes of asbestos and naturally occurring radioactive materials.

Other current projects include the positive isolation and cleaning of Treatment Train Two at the Scottish Area Gas Evacuation facility at St Fergus, on behalf of Apache Corporation; and the redundant ENI gas terminal at Bacton, where Petrofac has carried out positive isolation, engineering down and cleaning of the process equipment, and is now managing the dismantling, demolition, hazardous material removal and site clearance.