Norwell Engineering secures £20m contract for major deepwater development in India

Aberdeen based global well engineering and drilling project management firm Norwell Engineering has won a lucrative contract worth more than £20m ($30m) with ONGC, India’s national oil company.

The firm, which is one of the world’s longest established and most respected well management companies in the world, will provide well engineering, completion design and project management services to ONGC on its KG-DWN-98/2 deep water field development in the Bay of Bengal, off the east coast of India. The field is one of the largest deep-water field developments in the world.

The contract represents a continuation of the work Norwell has previously undertaken on the 28-well development. They were initially awarded a contract in 2018 to design and drill the wells and will now continue with the second phase, overseeing the final drilling and completions installation phase on the 3-rig campaign.

Iain Adams, managing director of Norwell Engineering, said: “Norwell has a longstanding commitment to operations in India and we look forward to continuing our successful partnership with ONGC on this major project and seeing the project through to first oil. This is a complex field development which utilises some of the most advanced oil field technologies in drilling and completions.

“Despite the far-reaching impact of the pandemic, we are proud to have been able to continue supporting ONGC without interruption, thanks to our excellent team who stepped up to ensure they could safely keep the project on track.”

The Norwell team will be working alongside long time Scottish partners Axis Well Technology who will be providing completions support, and who have partnered with Norwell on the project since 2018.

Paul Handsley, well operations director at Axis Well Technology, said: "As one of the world's highest profile deepwater field developments we are proud to once again be working alongside Norwell to help bring our expertise in completion design, flow assurance and completions installation to India. We have been working with Norwell on projects for over a decade and this project is a great example of that collaboration in practice. We share the same philosophy in our approach to projects and as a result bring an industry leading service to clients around the world."

Kevin Liu, head of energy, Asia Pacific, at Scottish Development International, added: "It is a great example to see these two highly experienced Scottish companies exporting so successfully to India. These are highly technical and complex projects, and Scotland leads the way in the services needed to make them happen safely and efficiently."

During the last three decades, Norwell Engineering has managed the delivery of more than 400 wells for over 100 clients across six continents, including the full range of FTSE100 operators, who have relied on the company's expertise to design, project manage and troubleshoot operations around the world. Founded in 1989, the company has been active in India since 2003.

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