Race is on to to Decommission Offshore North Sea Oil and Gas

Phil Black - PII Editor 05/11/2014

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Companies in the East of England had a “real advantage” over competitors in the £36bn programme to dismantle “serious infrastructure” of North Sea oil and gas, a leading industry figure told them.

Their competitive pricing put them ahead of companies in Aberdeen, Bill Cattanach, head of PILOT Secretariat, Industry and Technology Development for DECC, told an industry event in Norwich.

But they must be inventive with technology to push down costs even more in the “enormous opportunity” to decommission at least 550 wells in the Southern North Sea (SNS) sector alone.

With all SNS operators represented at the event, companies were given a strong message that they must collaborate more, share data and think smarter about decommissioning campaigns.

More than 100 representatives from the industry met at the Top of the Terrace, Carrow Road, Norwich for the Offshore Decommissioning Cost Efficiency Event organised by the East of England Energy Group (EEEGR) with DECC and Decom North Sea.

Flexibility of organisation was a theme. Companies needed to work collaboratively to tackle “well families” – similar well styles –and wells grouped geographically, they were told..

“We are at the beginning of a new industry with an enormous prize and there are huge opportunities for companies to come up with innovative solutions to reduce costs in a responsible and environmentally sustainable way – doing what is necessary and industrialising the process which will ultimately deliver real savings,” Mr Cattanach said.

“We need to realise there is no pot of gold at the end of a decommissioning project and it needs to be done as cost effectively as possible complying with all regulations.”

Allan Spencer, of Helix Canyon Offshore, said his company was developing remotely-operated technologies to alleviate the “human constraints” of divers and extend subsea operational windows. For example, processing mattresses subsea and developing high current tolerant ROV technologies.

“This is a business with no revenue. We are looking at what technologies we can develop and deploy that will be safer and more cost efficient for all stakeholders because they are taking out the human element, where possible.”

The event offered companies in the supply chain the chance to meet operators to discuss working together

Jay Miller, from Perenco, spoke of decommissioning challenges at fields off the Norfolk coast.

“One of the challenges is flying crews daily to the unmanned platforms. There are big logistical demands. We would like to see companies reduce the size of their crews by introducing multi-skilled personnel.

Limited deck space meant equipment packages needed to be smaller.

“How can you help us decommission these platforms as quickly and as cost effectively as possible?”

Brian Chia, of Welltec, said plugging and abandonment of wells were 70% above budget on average.

Accurate and up-to-date well data was needed to be shared to “de-risk” well plugging and abandonment activities as well as organising multi-operator campaigns based on geography and well-type, he said.