Decommissioning, Jee expertise and the Middle East

Once an oil field has reached the end of its viable life, arrangements must be made to decommission the oil field facilities and any supporting infrastructure.

In the North Sea, decommissioning is still a relatively new part of the industry, and with a large number of ageing assets coming to the end of their field lives, thorough consideration of the decommissioning process is becoming increasingly important.

There are approximately 470 installations in the North Sea with around 10,000 km of pipelines. It is estimated that decommissioning these facilities will cost approximately £24-30bn between 2010 and 2040*.

Legal requirements

The requirements for decommissioning offshore installations in the North Sea is dictated by the OSPAR 98/3 decision and administered by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). It is required that all installations are entirely removed from the seabed, with the exception of a limited number that fall into a certain category which may be considered for derogation.

Pipelines, on the other hand, may be considered for decommissioning in-situ if it can be demonstrated through study and analysis that the pipeline has been sufficiently cleaned and that removal is not a practicable option. However, in all cases, it must be demonstrated, in an officially submitted Decommissioning Programme that is signed off by the Government, that all decommissioning options have been considered and have been assessed based on safety, environmental, technical, social and economic criteria. As the decommissioning industry grows in the Middle East, it is likely that similar standards and requirements will develop.

Planning ahead

The decommissioning process for offshore installations and pipelines can be a complex one and the time taken to complete a decommissioning project should not be underestimated. Planning for decommissioning can start up to 5 years before cessation of production and if adequate cost provisioning is not made at this stage, then operators may find that when the time comes to decommission, the required funds are not available as money has been invested in other projects.

Call in the experts

Independent specialists Jee has over 20 years experience in the oil and gas industry and can provide expert support throughout the decommissioning process. They have helped major operators in the preliminary stages with independent studies, provided support during the execution of works as client representatives offshore and can even help to update relevant documentation during the close-out process at the end of a project. With a pragmatic approach, a thorough understanding of subsea systems and an in-depth knowledge of decommissioning legislation, Jee continue to support major operators successfully implement decommissioning projects in the North Sea.

Decommissioning was heavily underestimated in the North Sea and only now is the scale of the task being realised. Lessons learned from the North Sea can be shared across the industry and applied in the Middle East region to help operators prepare for the removal of their ever-aging assets.

This article was written by Mik Crosby for Oil Review Middle East, November 2011