ABOUT 100 senior industry figures gathered in Aberdeen last night to hear about BP’s decommissioning activities.
They were at the first event for members held by decommissioning industry body Decom North Sea.
Gunther Newcombe, BP vice-president of decommissioning, spoke about the company’s North Sea potential decommissioning plans and timescales, contracting strategies and details of supply-chain engagement.
The event in the Marcliffe Hotel was opened by Decom North Sea chief executive Brian Nixon, who said that the decommissioning body now had more than 60 members including operators, major contractors, service firms, technology developers and engineering consultants.
Eight reciprocal agreements have also been signed with trade organisations based in the UK, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands and the group is confident it will exceed its target of having 70 members by the end of the year.
Mr Nixon said later: “Our launch event earlier this year in this same hotel attracted around 100 senior industry officials who were interested to learn more about our plans. It was just great to have a similar number of decommissioning professionals attending the first meeting in our events programme; only this time they were full members of Decom North Sea.
“This was an excellent opportunity to hear directly from BP about the work it is planning in the North Sea and subsequent supply-chain requirements. We learned about the decommissioning challenges facing the industry and strategies to overcome these. The event was also a fantastic networking platform for members to discuss their decommissioning expertise and potential work that will arise from the estimated £25billion to £30billion of decommissioning work in the UK North Sea.”
Mr Nixon said the meeting marked the beginning of a series of events. He added: “We are hosting a major decommissioning conference in partnership with Oil and Gas UK, a contracting strategies workshop with Robert Gordon University and Accenture, and a NOF Energy networking lunch with the keynote speaker from Shell.
“The aim of these events is to encourage greater collaboration between operators and the supply chain to promote effective transfer of learning and experience from past and current projects.”
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