Planning, executing and managing decommissioning projects in the North Sea

Overview of decommissioning in the North Sea

• When is end of field life?
• North Sea decommissioning commitment
• Decommissioning forecasts
• Collaboration and campaigning (clusters)
• Learning from other sectors

Regulatory compliance

• Role of the regulators
• Decommissioning regulations and legislation
• Required submissions prior to commencement of decommissioning operators
• Application of regulations

Planning for decommissioning

• Keep or sell decisions
• Asset late life considerations
• Portfolio planning and contracting strategy
• Management of decommissioning projects
• Financial and commercial planning, including estimation of liabilities
• Sequencing
• Stakeholder identification and management

Well plugging and abandonment

• Platform / subsea well configuration
• Plugging and abandonment methods
• Challenges, costs and timing
• Live well abandonment
• New technology
• Case studies

Decommissioning of structures

• Topsides facilities
• Subsea structures
• Platform jackets
• Gravity based structures
• Floating facilities
• Case studies

Decommissioning of pipelines and ancillary components

• Cleaning requirements and approaches
• Removal options for rigid and flexible pipeline and riser sections
• Mattresses and grout bags
• Environmental considerations
• Decommissioning in situ
• Case studies

Onshore disposal

• Transportation / load in
• Onshore locations and capacity
• Hazardous materials and permitting
• Waste hierarchy
• Re-use or recycling considerations
• Landfill

Group exercise (completed following the course)

• Devise the decommissioning programme for a North Sea field development, providing justification for the sequencing and approach adopted and outlining the considerations to be made at each stage of the process.