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Southern North Sea Decommissioning Conference

Bringing the Gulf of Mexico and Southern North Sea Together

Despite improved oil and gas recovery techniques delaying decommissioning in many cases, some projects are already going ahead in the North Sea. These and future projects, conservatively valued at £23 billion in UK waters alone, present considerable opportunities for the upstream oil and gas industry’s supply chain to invest in the provision of innovative services and new technology.

The emerging decommissioning market has the potential to provide key players with sustainable business continuity for decades to come, not only in the North Sea, but around the world. However, in order to achieve this outcome they must, without delay, understand what opportunities will be on offer and begin to prepare to meet the needs of this market.

Oil & Gas UK’s two-day Southern North Sea Decommissioning Conference provided the ideal opportunity for North Sea operators and suppliers alike to learn from the vast experience of companies involved in the decommissioning of Gulf of Mexico infrastructure and other provinces around the world and improve their grasp of what lies ahead in the North Sea.

This unique event offered the added benefit of an ‘all-under-one-roof’ approach to the transfer of knowledge and expertise in this important area. Not only did it give operators access to a broad range of technology and service companies, it enabled suppliers to reduce the costs of researching new business opportunities by way of a ‘share fair’ session. Conference delegates were welcomed by keynote speakers with accounts of decommissioning projects in the Gulf of Mexico by Chevron and Superior and in the North Sea by BP and Shell. Speakers from the North Sea upstream industry’s representative organisations, Ramboll of Denmark and NOGEPA of the Netherlands, then outlined the markets for decommissioning in their respective countries and together with the keynote speakers, debated the differences and similarities between the Gulf of Mexico and the Southern North Sea. During the remainder of the first day, the focus was on methods of managing the process of decommissioning including a presentation on work breakdown structure by Design Alpha, on contracting strategies by Proserv and on Able UK’s experience of onshore disposal and management.

On the second day, delegates turned their attention to the technical capabilities required in Southern North Sea decommissioning. Halliburton addressed them on pipeline cleaning and the use of explosives and they learnt from InterAct about innovation in well abandonment and from Norse Cutting & Abandonment on operating techniques.

In addition, late-life asset owners participated in an interactive ‘share fair’ session, explaining to suppliers their forward plans and providing invaluable information on platform types, number of wells and pipelines required. A conference dinner provided a superb opportunity for networking and was included in the price of attending the conference.

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