Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (April 2): Petroliam Nasional Bhd's (Petronas) subsidiary PSE Kinsale Energy Ltd is said to have awarded a multi-year contract to Hydra Well Intervention AS to support PSE Kinsale Energy’s major decommissioning project in Ireland.

Hydra Well said in a statement on its website yesterday that PSE Kinsale Energy operates Ireland’s first gas fields off the Country Cork coast, with the field in production from 1978 until 2020. 

Hydra Well, which did not specify the value of the contract, said "the fields were Ireland's only indigenous source of natural gas until 2015".

"We will implement our Perforate, Wash and Cement (PWC®) system, designed for specialist wellbore applications, on approximately 15 wells across PSE Kinsale Energy’s Celtic Sea assets as part of the two-year campaign. Our PWC® system provides a revolutionary solution to replace traditional plug and abandonment (P&A) and downhole tooling techniques.

"PSE Kinsale Energy initially deployed our PWC® technology on a well in December last year and, due to the achieved success, PSE Kinsale Energy will continue to work with us on up to 75% of the remaining P&A activities,” Hydra Well said.

At the time of writing, Petronas had not issued a statement in response to Hydra Well’s statement.

According to PSE Kinsale Energy’s website, the company, formerly known as Marathon Oil Ireland Ltd, had been producing natural gas from its facilities off the Old Head of Kinsale since 1978 up to the cessation of production in July 2020. 

"The company was acquired by Petronas in April 2009, and currently employs 60 people operating the Kinsale Head, Ballycotton and Seven Heads gas fields in the Celtic Sea,” PSE Kinsale Energy said.

PSE Kinsale Energy also provided more information on its original gas production operations, which are currently being decommissioned.

According to the company, the Kinsale Head, Ballycotton, Seven Heads and Southwest Kinsale gas fields lie approximately 50km off the south coast of Cork. 

PSE Kinsale Energy said the gas-bearing reservoirs are in layers of porous and permeable sandstone rock about 840m below the sea level.

"These rock layers are relatively thin — at about 120 metres, but they cover a large area — the main Kinsale Head reservoir, for example, extends over 100 sq km. The rocks were formed in the Cretaceous geological era — around 100 million years ago and the gas is contained in the sandstone under layers of shale and chalk, which are impermeable to gas.

"The gas found in the Kinsale Head area is exceptionally pure, consisting mainly of methane, and only requires removal of associated water to ensure it meets the required quality levels.

"This conditioning is carried out offshore and the gas is then compressed to raise its pressure for transport to the Kinsale Energy Inch Terminal near Midleton, Co. Cork. From the Inch Terminal, the gas is then metered and transferred to Gas Networks Ireland (GNI) for distribution nationwide,” PSE Kinsale Energy said.

Edited ByChong Jin Hun
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