UNSPSC 71122713: Subsea wellhead service

Subsea wellheads are the primary pressure barrier for subsea wells providing a secure and pressure-controlled environment for access to the wellbore. They are crucial to the safe and steady production of oil and gas as they act as anchors and suspension points.

UNSPSC 71122713 Subsea wellhead service (Commodity) encompasses plugging, abandonment, and site restoration of orphaned oil and gas wells, based on recent state procurement activity. State and local governments buying under this code are primarily state environmental and energy departments managing legacy well remediation programs funded through federal infrastructure grants. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy dominates recent solicitation activity, issuing four direct solicitations in July 2026 for orphan gas storage well plugging across Gratiot and Montcalm counties totaling 38 wells (New Haven Energy LLC operations). These procurements—DS7612600000000322, DS7612600000000332, DS7612600000000342, and DS7612600000000352—all closed July 21, 2026, and required prequalification through prior RFPs with mandatory attendance at pre-proposal meetings. Scope includes drilling, re-drilling, plugging with cement, site restoration including road and infrastructure removal, and compliance with Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements; all three Michigan solicitations use best-value evaluation based on technical scoring (key personnel, equipment list, experience, vendor responses) with 80-point minimum thresholds, firm pricing with no permitted changes, and unit-price matrices covering 68 rated line items from rig services through wireline operations. Eligible bidders faced a hard prequalification gate through prior RFPs (210000000834, 220000000547, 220000001850, 220000002631, 240000000951), limiting competition to previously awarded contractors.

Michigan concentrated the recent activity in this Commodity code, with all posted opportunities arising from a single issuing body targeting a discrete geographic region. The Mississippi Oil and Gas Board conducted smaller, scattered procurements for orphan well plugging (IFB 3160007881 in March 2026 and IFB 3160007966 in March 2026), and the Texas General Land Office issued an RFQ for high-H2S well pad services (RFQ 455-26-1020 in May 2026), but these represent secondary activity. Recent opportunities show the code is highly specialized: Michigan's July 2026 cycle is already closed, and other state oil-and-gas boards issue plugging work intermittently, often through prequalified or restricted bidder pools. Firms without prior award under Michigan's prequalification vehicles or similar state programs face barriers to entry. The infrastructure-grant funding model (Davis-Bacon, IIJA, Build America Buy America compliance) and the technical complexity of high-pressure well abandonment, H2S management, and site remediation limit viable competitors to contractors with proven orphan-well experience and adequate bonding and insurance capacity. Current pursuit of this code depends on state RFQ and IFB calendars—Michigan's July cycle has closed; other states' cycles are less predictable.