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How to optimise decommissioning and radically reduce costs
16/11/2022
8 min read
Feature
Significant initiatives are underway to cut the decommissioning costs of offshore oil and gas installations as they reach end-of-life. Brian Davis reports on the state of play of European Union (EU) and UK decommissioning programmes, and research at a leading decommissioning centre of excellence.
The emphasis of decommissioning operations today is on developing new, cost-effective techniques for permanent well plugging and abandonment (P&A) – the most expensive part of the process; cheaper removal; recycling and/or reuse of offshore infrastructure; and leaving a healthy marine environment with a clean seabed wherever possible.
Under the Offshore Safety Directive (2013/30/EU), there is a legal framework for the safe decommissioning of offshore installations with respect to major safety hazards and the environmental impact. Surprisingly, there is no EU legislation on offshore oil and gas decommissioning specifically, although decommissioning falls within the scope of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive 2014/52/EU environmental legislation as a ‘project’. Collectively, the oil and gas industry has to comply with international conventions, such as OSPAR’s Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and International Maritime Organisation (IMO) conventions require that installations (not including pipelines and drill cuttings) must be fully removed to allow safe navigation of shipping and other uses of the sea, such as fishing. Only the OSPAR convention has established criteria for derogation of some structures from complete removal – this is only for large, fixed installations (such as concrete structures and pre-1998 steel jackets over 10,000 tonnes). Other regional sea conventions are less well-developed, and there are no common principles for the removal of oil and gas infrastructure from EU-controlled waters.