DeepOcean Gets BP’s Foinaven Subsea Decommissioning Job

(Credit: DeepOcean)

Ocean services provider DeepOcean has secured a contract by BP to remove subsea infrastructure from the Foinaven oil field west of Shetland as part of the decommissioning of the UK offshore asset.

The scope of work includes the recovery of ten flexible process risers, three dynamic subsea umbilicals and one static umbilical from the former Foinaven floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) location.

DeepOcean will also remove associated buoyancy modules, riser protection systems, clamps and other subsea equipment connected to the infrastructure.

The company will provide engineering, project management and offshore execution services, with the project managed from its Aberdeen operations. Offshore activities will be carried out using one of DeepOcean’s subsea construction vessels.

The contract follows previous decommissioning work performed by DeepOcean for BP at the Don and Miller fields under a similar commercial framework.

“We greatly appreciate the opportunity to support bp in another important decommissioning scope on the UKCS. This award reflects a progressive and commercially innovative approach to subsea decommissioning. By building on the successful model previously implemented with bp at the Miller and Don fields, we have established a robust framework that delivers greater efficiency, cost optimisation, and operational flexibility for both parties,” said Øyvind Mikaelsen, Chief Executive Officer of DeepOcean.

Foinaven, located about 190 km west of the Shetland Islands in the Faroe-Shetland Channel, was discovered in 1992 and began production in 1997. The field operated in water depths ranging from 330 to 530 metres.

Before the FPSO was removed from the field in 2021, Foinaven had produced approximately 440 million barrels of oil, around twice the volume originally anticipated at the time of development.