ITF, the oil and gas industry technology facilitator, hosted a theme day in Aberdeen yesterday which attracted more than 100 delegates.
Designed to tackle the issues surrounding the use of lightweight intervention vessels for well abandonment, the event was sponsored by BP.
ITF operations director David Liddle said: “In terms of participation and interest, this has been our largest theme-day event this year and underlines the importance of this topic.
“By bringing together such a large number of the industry’s major operator and service companies, we were able to discuss and leverage understanding of the technology gaps that exist to perform rigless abandonment using lightweight intervention vessels.
“With 220 subsea wells in the North Sea alone, subsea well abandonment is an increasingly hot topic for the sector and it’s believed that, over the next few years, the UK decommissioning market will be valued at around £15billion. With the average rig rates still reaching £500,000 per day, we need to look at how we can lower the associated costs of subsea well abandonment.
“New approaches such as rigless intervention are changing the face of this sector but we need to truly understand the challenges we face and ensure that as an industry we can minimise environmental impact and manage costs.”
ITF is to issue a global call for related technology proposals next month, which could lead to up to 100% funding for successful applicants.