Decommissioning – formulating strategy to delivery

Spirit Energy has a portfolio of decommissioning projects which are in different stages of the project lifecycle. Girish Kabra and Will Black shall talk about the decommissioning strategy for Spirit Energy, its operational and behavioural challenges in late life operations, and decommissioning project execution.

The decommissioning phase is normally the last phase of an offshore asset’s lifecycle, and usually spans cessation of production operations, removal of facilities, and their potential dismantling. In the North Sea, as in other areas, this has to be done without harming the natural environment, and of course, safely. Key challenges include the regulatory context, the schedule and also the cost environment. Because it is a cessation activity, little or no payback or cost recovery can be envisaged from this phase.

The age of the assets concerned, along with the fact that during their design, very little consideration was given to decommissioning, means that other barriers have to be overcome. Given the current stage of the North Sea’s maturity as a producing basin, this subject is extremely topical. Although slow to start, decommissioning activity in the province has now accelerated, and it is therefore hoped that this event will be of interest to all who work in this field, as well as to a wider audience interested in the project management issues.