Global consortium aims to ease pains of decommissioning projects

MAY 2, 2018 — Global spending on oil and gas decommissioning is expected to be $13 billion per year by 2040. Now a new global decommissioning consortium has been set up that includes Lloyd’s Register (LR), WorleyParsons, and Ardent. It takes a collaborative supply chain approach to global decommissioning, offering an end-to-end solution, to reduce the decommissioning burden, risk and cost for operators.

The consortium includes leading experts to cover all aspects of decommissioning, from late life management to planning, readiness for removal, execution, waste management and monitoring post removal. The consortium has the capability to take well operatorship, duty-holdership and title of offshore structures, in addition to providing independent third-party assurance.

“This consortium offers a new, collaborative approach to decommissioning for operators,” said Steve Gilbert, LR’s Director of Asset Management and Decommissioning. “It represents a fundamental step change for the industry, aligning assurance, project management, and safe, fit-for-purpose removal and disposal.”

Peter Pietka, Ardent CEO, said: “We bring to the consortium over 150 years of maritime retrieval experience, as a global leader in salvage and wreck removal. Through our expertise, we are in the unique position of being able to apply techniques and learnings from other sectors such as marine wreck removal, to improve how to tackle the increasingly important challenge of decommissioning offshore oil and gas infrastructure.”

The consortium is set to deliver smarter decommissioning activities with end to end project management and execution for operators in Europe, Asia and Americas that include best practices from other sectors such as float and tow, used widely in salvage.

John Cox, Global Decommissioning Lead, WorleyParsons, says: “The value for industry is that our combined expertise covers the full decommissioning lifecycle. We have the unique capability to become well duty holders and take title of offshore structures plus we offer independent assurance throughout the decommissioning process. This consortium provides a new benchmark in cost-effective decommissioning activities, with safety and peace of mind for the operator.”