Wood Group secures contract with Suncor Energy to reduce oil well costs

Oil and gas service company Wood Group was awarded a three-year contract to work on Suncor Energy’s heavy oil well pads in Canada due to its cost-saving designs.

Wood Group received the first authorisation under a multi use agreement with Suncor Energy, to work at its Firebag site in Alberta, Canada, which is about 120km northeast of Fort McMurray.

Chief executive Robin Watson, said: “Our standard well pad design provides heavy oil producers the opportunity to lower costs and increase profit margins, and offers a new design solution for heavy oil production.”

Suncor’s well pad facilities costs, which previously were between CA$4m to CA$9m per two wells, are now about CA$2m per two wells using Wood Group’s design.

The company will use its well pad design, that was developed in response to concerns about rising costs for heavy oil facilities, to deliver savings by eliminating costs associated with engineering, procurement and project management.

The design is for pad sizes of up to 12 well pairs and uses a drilling pattern with the production and steam injection wells in two parallel rows, with wells drilled at 10 metre spacing.

Shares in Wood Group were up 0.19% to 802p at 0820 BST.