Costing and technological challenges of offshore oil and gas decommissioning in the UK North Sea

A significant number of offshore oil and gas installations in the U.K. North Sea have either exceeded or are approaching the end of their designed economic life. Operators and contractors are confronted with an array of challenges that hinder the cost-effective and safe completion of decommissioning projects. The costing and technological challenges that confront the oil and gas industry are identified using a series of semistructured interviews. One of the most prominent challenges identified was the inability to reliably estimate the volume and cost of work to be undertaken. This is exacerbated by a supply chain with limited capacity and experience in executing decommissioning projects in this fledgling sector in the oil and gas industry. As a result of the analysis that is undertaken, it is recommended that an industrywide decommissioning forum be established to facilitate the sharing of experience and knowledge, particularly with regard to cost information so that operators and contractors can ameliorate the planning and management of the decommissioning process.