Operators in the Gulf of Mexico can learn from decommissioning feats in the UK, according to an industry body.
Decom North Sea (DNS) called for a knowledge share as some of major GoM players prepare to decommission deepwater operations.
Oil was first discovered off the Louisiana coast in 1936 from a platform built on timber pilings standing in just 15ft of water. There are currently 796 idle structures in the GoM. Last year, 1,400 wells were abandoned and 260 structures removed, totaling up to nearly £2billion.
Sarah Hillyear, operations manager at DNS , said: “In the GoM, the ‘big boys’ control the majority of the market. The top 10 operators were responsible for over 80% of decommissioning in 2013, with Apache Shelf Corp. and Chevron Corp. spending £500million; roughly one third of the total market expenditure.”
She added: “In the GoM, decommissioning has been ongoing for a number of years with hundreds of structures being removed each year. Up until recently this has been mainly small shallow water structures but as the more complex deeper water structures reach the end of their economic life, there is potentially a lot to learn from the UK’s decommissioning efforts.”
DNS will be holding a knowledge share breakfast tomorrow at the Hilton Houston Post Oak which will include a global outlook of decommissioning and abandonment from market analysts Infield Systems Ltd and an overview from Marathon Oil, which currently has decommissioning activity in both the North Sea and GoM, on the similarities and differences in the two markets and where they feel improvements can be made.
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