An annual offshore decommissioning conference has “left its comfort zone”, organisers said as the 2019 event drew to a close yesterday.
More than 450 people attended the latest instalment of the Offshore Decommissioning Conference at the Fairmont Hotel in St Andrews.
The conference and exhibition was co-hosted by industry bodies Decom North Sea (DNS) and Oil and Gas UK (OGUK).
DNS chief executive John Warrender and OGUK upstream policy director Mike Tholen said the decommissioning conversation had “moved on” from previous years.
Mr Warrender said previous conferences were dominated by presentations and discussions about lowering costs and executing projects safely and efficiently.
But this year’s conference widened the scope in terms of examining how decommissioning fits in with the energy transition and the development of technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS), he added.
He said the amount of oil and gas infrastructure that could be used for CCS was more limited than many people thought, but covering the topic was important.
Mr Tholen said he was impressed by some of the “flashy” technologies that were on show this week.
The event had become more than just a forum for discussion and debate, Mr Tholen said, adding delegates at this year’s gathering “made clients and did deals”.
This would not have happened without the conference, he said.
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