Subsea Services Alliance to Develop Riserless Abandonment System

The Subsea Services Alliance, a contractual collaboration between Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. (NYSE: HLX) and Schlumberger (SLB), today announced the launch of the development of the first Riserless Open-water Abandonment Module (ROAM).

The 18¾-in. large bore system will enhance well abandonment capacity from a well intervention vessel by allowing tubing to be pulled in open water in a safe and environmentally contained manner.

“The ROAM system will support open water well abandonment operations while employing well control and environmental protection measures,” said Owen Kratz, president and chief executive officer, Helix. “This system will allow Helix to expand our existing open-water tubing pulling operations to new regions and further extend the capabilities of our diverse fleet.”

Mike Garding, president, OneSubsea, a Schlumberger company, added, "We are taking this step in response to a market requirement to lower the cost of subsea abandonment that is impacting our customers globally. The ROAM system will extend our capability into true lower completion abandonment, and also reduce the uncertainty of well integrity that our customers face when they proceed to upper completion abandonment operations."

The ROAM system will be engineered and built at the OneSubsea manufacturing facility in Aberdeen. The system, which will complement existing intervention riser systems and subsea intervention lubricators, is expected to be available to customers in the third quarter 2017.