Hornbeck Awarded Multi-Year North Sea Well Decommissioning Contract, Set to Commence in Q2 2027

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 14, Hornbeck Offshore Services announced that its subsidiary Helix Well Ops (U.K.) Limited has been awarded a multi-year well decommissioning contract by a major oil and gas operator in the North Sea. The contract is scheduled to commence in the second quarter of 2027, with a firm two-year execution period and customer extension options. Hornbeck will carry out riserless plug and abandonment operations, providing an integrated solution encompassing vessels, well access systems, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), saturation diving, and project management and engineering services. The contract value and the customer's name have not been disclosed.

Under the contract arrangement, Hornbeck will deploy one of two specialized riserless well intervention vessels, either the Well Enhancer or the Seawell, to perform the operations. The project will also be equipped with a Subsea Intervention Lubricator well access system, ROVs, and a subsea saturation diving system, with Hornbeck assuming unified responsibility for engineering design, project management, and offshore execution, enabling plug and abandonment operations to be completed without deploying a conventional drilling rig.

Both the Well Enhancer and the Seawell have long been used for North Sea well intervention and decommissioning. In first-quarter 2026 data disclosed by Hornbeck's predecessor Helix, the Well Enhancer recorded a utilization rate of 34% for the quarter, resuming operations in March to execute decommissioning projects; the Seawell recorded a utilization rate of 60%, having been reactivated in February of this year following a warm stack in 2025, also for decommissioning operations. The two vessels have therefore built up continuous North Sea riserless plug and abandonment operational experience.

Hornbeck had previously secured another multi-year North Sea decommissioning contract. In December 2025, Helix signed a riserless plug and abandonment contract with a major operator covering up to 34 subsea wells, with work commencing in 2026, encompassing pipeline flushing, disconnection, and wellhead plugging, with execution assets likewise including the Well Enhancer or Seawell, the Subsea Intervention Lubricator, and ROV systems. The new September contract is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2027 and represents additional, independent multi-year work scope.

Hornbeck had just completed its merger with Helix Energy Solutions on September 1, with the combined company continuing to use the name Hornbeck Offshore Services and resuming trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "HOS" on September 2. Following completion of the merger, the company owns 7 well intervention vessels and 12 subsea well intervention systems, with well intervention operations covering the North Sea, the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, and the Asia-Pacific market.

As of the second quarter of 2026, the combined Hornbeck well intervention business had approximately US$755 million in contract backlog, with the segment generating approximately US$851 million in revenue over the trailing twelve months, accounting for approximately 46% of the company's consolidated revenue over the same period. The company disclosed that decommissioning work accounts for approximately half of well intervention revenue, and the North Sea is one of its core well decommissioning markets. This newly added two-year firm-period contract will extend from 2027 through at least 2029 and may continue if the customer exercises its extension options.

From an engineering model perspective, this contract adopts a "single-contractor integrated services" approach, with Hornbeck not merely providing the operating vessel but incorporating vessels, subsea wellhead access, ROVs, saturation diving, and engineering management into a single contract package. This model can reduce the number of interfaces for the owner in separately procuring vessels, diving, ROVs, and well intervention systems, and also aligns with Hornbeck's business structure of expanding integrated offshore engineering services following completion of the Helix merger.