Wellhead platform field development reached a new region for ICON Engineering in 2018, when the Perth-based offshore engineer delivered its first project in West Africa — supporting the planning of a wellhead platform and associated processing facilities.
The proposal drew on ICON’s then 21-year history of offshore engineering (as of 2018), examining a range of development solutions and operating models suited to smaller, and sometimes marginal, oil and gas fields.
Early production systems and staged development
The client was particularly focused on the feasibility of early production systems and staged development scenarios — approaches that let smaller fields come online sooner and with less upfront capital risk.
ICON’s independence from capital assets such as lift barges and work boats meant the team could assess every method of installation and commissioning on its merits, rather than being steered toward assets it already owned, and recommend the development plan best suited to that specific asset, client and region.
Building on ICON’s West Africa track record
The West African contract followed the 2017 deployment of an ICON-designed compensated tension lift frame, the Advanced Riser Tension Protector (ARTP), to ENI’s Offshore Cape Three Points project in Ghana — work that helped establish ICON’s credentials in the region ahead of this wellhead platform field development contract.
Operators were targeting Final Investment Decision (FID) on the project within 2018.
ICON’s engineering track record
ICON has installed more offshore platforms with jackup drilling rigs than any other company worldwide, and is expert in minimal facilities installation techniques such as Minnowpods, Monopods and Annex wellhead platforms. This track record extends to a British Government engineering award for the innovative North Sea design and installation method used on Shell’s Skiff oilfield, and to installing the first fixed wellhead platform in the Timor Sea.
The company has also carried out the deepest and lowest-cost deployment of flexible flowlines from a semi-submersible drilling rig in Australia, and pioneered mini-floatover technology for topsides up to 1,200 tonnes. ICON is a world leader in conductor tensioning systems for jackup drilling rigs, from the Gippsland Basin to the Gulf of Mexico, and is known for completing difficult rig upgrades outside shipyards in remote offshore locations.
ICON’s equipment division sells and rents equipment internationally, with a focus on niche equipment for construction and drilling operations, and the company designs and manufactures heave-compensated systems for drilling locked-to-bottom well test conditions.
ICON’s broader wellhead platform field development capability
This West Africa project sits alongside ICON’s long-running work in wellhead platform design and field development studies, spanning feasibility studies through to FEED, detailed engineering and offshore installation execution.
Planning a wellhead platform field development for a marginal or early-stage field? Get in touch with ICON’s team.
For further information, please call: David Field, Managing Director — T: +61 8 6313 5500.
