A global decommissioning veteran is ready to take on the challenge of taking apart the North Sea’s ageing assets.
Enrico Salardi has been appointed as Xodus’ new decommissioning director and joins the company from operator Quadrant Energy where he was senior project manager for a number of programmes in Australia.
Mr Salardi said he feels Xodus has been always been “ahead of the game” from advising governments to strategic planning.
He said: “I am joining a very experienced team that has worked on managing processes and the execution of work on many assets in the North Sea and around the world.
“I hope my knowledge will add to this and provide the team with an insight into what challenges the operators are facing and how we can help ease the demanding process of decommissioning, including reducing associated costs.”
Throughout his career, Mr Salardi has managed many projects in various phases of their lifecycle around the world, including Italy, Nigeria, Norway, Libya, Croatia, Egypt and Australia.
After more than 15 years working for Italian supermajor Eni, he joined Apache in Perth, Australia where, besides decommissioning work, he also managed a number of new development projects.
As several assets in the North Sea reach the end of their lifespan, the Oil and Gas Authority has predicted the cost of decommissioning the UK continental shelf (UKCS) oil and gas infrastructure is £59.7billion with an ambitious goal of completing this work for less than £39billion.
Xodus’ integrated capabilities covers the entire offshore decommissioning process from facility design to project execution and long-term monitoring which can help clients ensure that their requirements are understood and managed.
Mr Salardi will work alongside Xodus’ decommissioning lead, Peter Tipler, who will continue to focus on delivering the innovation, collaboration and strategic solutions that are required to reduce the overall cost of decommissioning.
He helped form Xodus’ decom division which has undertaken over 100 decommissioning projects globally ranging from M&A due diligence and commercial advice, to training and detailed planning and approvals for decom execution.
Wim van der Zande, chief executive of Xodus Group said: “Enrico has vast experience of working at all stages of an asset’s lifecycle and his recent work in directly managing a decommissioning project will provide our team with valuable insight of an operator’s perspective.
“He will bring his learnings from global decommissioning projects to our key areas, including the North Sea, which we hope will lead to further cost savings for our clients.
“As we’ve shown over the last few years, Xodus is a trusted advisor in decommissioning.
Our team can apply its deep understanding of decommissioning from execution of projects globally to focus on the key drivers that materially impact the overall cost for operators.”